Early departure costs former Qantas boss Joyce a $10 million haircut
Qantas has trimmed almost $10 million from Alan Joyce’s pay packet after the former chief’s early departure from the airline’s top role.
Former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. (Photo: AAP: Joel Carrett)
Other executives and directors are also facing a cut after action from the competition watchdog and reputational turbulence triggered Mr Joyce’s decision to leave the chief executive’s job in September, two months before his planned departure.
Mr Joyce had been due to leave in November, which would have marked 15 years after he landed in the role in 2008.
A tranche of incentive-based shares he held in the airline, valued at $8.36 million at the start of the financial year, will be forfeited.
A bonus would also be cut by $900,000, Qantas said in a statement on Thursday.
The airline launched a review in October after a 12-month period in which Qantas was accused of advertising tickets for flights it had already cancelled and found to have illegally sacked more than 1600 workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A $100 million penalty is awaiting court approval for the flight cancellations, while the airline’s breaches of the Fair Work Act are also being determined.
Mistakes made by the airline’s board and management contributed to significant reputational and customer service issues, Qantas said.
“The events that damaged Qantas and its reputation and caused considerable harm to relationships with customers, employees and other stakeholders were due to a number of factors,” the company said in its statement.
The review did not identify any deliberate wrongdoing.
Qantas chairman-elect John Mullen said the review has charted a path to restore pride in the airline, which describes itself as the “Spirit of Australia”.
“It’s clear that we let Australians down,” he said.
“There is still a significant amount of work to be done to rebuild the trust of all stakeholders.”
The airline’s board has committed to addressing the 32 recommendations in independent advisor Tom Saar’s review, the company said.
Mr Saar said many of those actions are complete or well under way.
“While some of the recommendations will take some time to embed across the organisation, if the current momentum is maintained, my expectation is that tangible benefits will occur within a short period,” he said.
