Advisory group Glass Lewis has criticised safety-related bonus payout to top executives despite subcontractor fatality
Smurfit Kappa chief executive Tony Smurfit's total remuneration amounted to €5.77 million, including €1.67 million of cash and stock bonuses. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish TimesSmurfit Kappa has hit back at a recommendation by an influential investor advisory group that shareholders should reject the paper packaging giant’s 2022 pay report, after top executives received a maximum bonus payout linked to health and safety measures even after the death of a subcontractor.
One-tenth of the annual bonus consideration of group chief executive Tony Smurfit and chief financial officer Ken Bowles is linked to health and safety measures. Glass Lewis, the advisory group, took issue with the fact that Smurfit Kappa awarded a maximum payout under the health and safety metric last year, given the subcontractor fatality recorded in the company’s annual report. Mr Smurfit’s total remuneration amounted to €5.77 million, including €1.67 million of cash and stock bonuses, while Mr Bowles’s package came to €3.15 million.
Glass Lewis said a company “should reduce the safety component down to zero in light of fatalities, as receiving a payout under the safety element of the [short-term incentive] in a year when there have been fatalities risks sending a mixed message to the executives as to the company’s overarching safety goal”.