Qantas exec pay, Hudson bonus plan, face backlash
Five major proxy advisers recommend investors reject Qantas’ executive pay scheme and have demanded more details over why the board has not sanctioned the airline’s management financially over an adverse High Court ruling and its flight credits saga.
The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors joined Glass Lewis, Ownership Matters, Institutional Shareholder Services and the Australian Shareholders Association in recommending investors vote against the adoption of Qantas’ remuneration report.
The national carrier’s board faces a fiery annual general meeting on November 3. Louie Douvis
Proxy advice raises the prospect of Qantas facing the biggest backlash by an ASX blue chip since National Australia Bank suffered an 88.1 per cent vote against its remuneration report in 2018.
ISS and the ASA further recommend investors vote down a motion proposing that Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson be granted long-term incentive payments for financial year 2024.
“Given recent reputational issues, shareholders may see this as a core responsibility of the leadership of the CEO, to whom substantial remuneration is already on offer,” ISS said of Ms Hudson’s participation in the bonus plan.
Qantas chairman Richard Goyder has already signalled he will step down by next year’s meeting, and directors Jacqueline Hey and Maxine Brenner will resign by February.
Glass Lewis said Qantas made changes to its remuneration framework for 2023-24.
“The short-term incentive plan scorecard weighting will be further increased toward customer focus, with customer measure assigned a target weighting of 40 per cent from 20 per cent in FY2023,” it said.
“The LTIP scorecard will include a third measure focused on reputation, which will be equally
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