QANTAS chief Alan Joyce has joined the ranks of chief executives who this year have put up their hands to forgo any bonus payments before the results of a difficult year are fully revealed.
Qantas confirmed yesterday that Mr Joyce, who last year caused a furore when he accepted a package of base salary and bonuses worth around $9.31million last year, will not be seeking any of his short or long-term bonuses options.
It comes after a year of turmoil in which Mr Joyce grounded the airline to effectively end union industrial action last October, then a few months ago announced Qantas' international division is heading for a loss of $838.7m.
Mr Joyce is expected this week to reveal a loss for the overall airline of around $372.7m, its first since being fully privatised in 1995.
He follows other corporate chiefs include Paul O'Malley of Bluescope Steel, BHP Billiton's Marius Kloppers and Rio Tinto's Tom Albanese to voluntarily take pay cuts.
Mr Joyce's base salary will be about $4.28m.
The Australian Shareholders Association yesterday welcomed the move as part of a wider trend towards chief executives realising their pay should be closely tied to corporate performance.
ASA chief executive Vas Kolesnikoff noted that Rio Tinto chairman Jan du Plessis had spoken of a disconnect in recent years between executive pay and company performance.
Mr Joyce indicated in a media interview that he realised it had been a hard year for Qantas shareholders and it was appropriate he did not seek his bonus payments.
Last year, Mr Joyce's salary rose from $5.44m to $9.31m just as Qantas was involved in a protracted dispute with three unions, which partly involved pay rates and modest increases the company was seeking.