(Reuters) – Australia’s Qantas Chairman Richard Goyder acknowledged on Friday that there will be an ‘overwhelming’ vote against the company’s remuneration report, a complete reversal of the 90-plus percent support it had received in the previous years.
The weight of public fury will most likely overshadow a record annual profit for the carrier in 2023 as shareholders respond to reputation blunders by voting against executive pay and other motions.
Shareholders are set to vote on eight resolutions later in the day, including the remuneration report and the election of CEO Vanessa Hudson as a director. If the report is voted down two years in a row, shareholders can vote on whether to sack the board.
“There has been a substantial loss of trust in the national carrier,” Goyder said at the airline’s much awaited annual general meeting on Friday, adding that its post-COVID return to flying was more challenging than expected.
The flagship Australian airline has been beleaguered by multiple legal and regulatory actions, leading to calls for the resignation of the outgoing chairman, while outgoing Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce brought forward his retirement.
Qantas had said in September that it would pay Joyce A$21.4 million ($13.48 million) for the 2023 fiscal year, a near 10-fold jump from last year.
(Reporting by Archishma Iyer in Bengaluru; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Gerry Doyle)
