Anger over executive pay and perks as Thomas Cook repatriation continues
Directors at the failed travel company received nearly £50 million over the past decade.
Anger is growing over millions of pounds in payments made to Thomas Cook bosses before the tour operator collapsed.
Top executives shared more than £16 million between them in pay and perks over the past five years while the group’s profits have been in sharp decline.
Chief executive Peter Fankhauser and his predecessor Harriet Green were paid £9.4 million between them over the past five years.
However, £4.1 million of Mr Fankhauser’s pay was in shares which are now worthless.
Thomas Cook’s chief financial officers – Bill Scott and Michael Healy – bagged more than £7 million in total.
The payments were made despite a sharp decline in profits.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson questioned whether senior managers should pay themselves “large sums of money” as their businesses go “down the tubes”.
Speaking in New York after the launch of a 1,000-flight holidaymaker repatriation operation part-funded by the Government, he said: “I have questions for one about whether it’s right that the directors, or whoever, the board, should pay themselves large sums when businesses can go down the tubes like that.”
