No comment.

Dixon in the $10m high club
Author: Matt O'Sullivan
Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 7 October 2008

QANTAS'S departing boss, Geoff Dixon, has almost beaten the Americans at their own game - by mastering the fine art of securing the best pay.

Mr Dixon will step down next month as the second-highest-paid airline boss in the world, beaten only by the head of America's second-largest airline, United Airlines.

Analysis by the Herald shows Mr Dixon's package of almost $12 million this year dwarfs the salaries of his European counterparts and all but one of those in the US - where massive executive salaries are par for the course - even though Qantas ranks as only 10th-largest airline in the world.

The revelations galled Qantas staff, who have argued against a management plan to cap staff wage rises at 3 per cent a year. The airline also decided to lay off 1500 workers by Christmas.

Mr Dixon's package is beaten only by that of Glenn Tilton, the boss of UAL Corp, whose largest subsidiary is United Airlines. Mr Tilton took home $US10.3 million ($13.69 million) last year, including a base salary of $US850,000 and $US4.7 million in share awards.

UAL's board has been under pressure from United Airlines pilots to reduce Mr Tilton's pay at the same time as the carrier slashes its workforce and grounds a fifth of its planes.

Mr Dixon's total package of $11.92 million for the year to June included a cash bonus of $3 million and almost $6.4 million in share-based payments, the Qantas annual report shows.

It is a significant rise on the previous year, when he was awarded $6.5 million. Three months before the $11.1 billion private equity raid on Qantas was made public in November 2006, Mr Dixon had close to $8 million tipped into his super account when he renewed his contract.

Qantas declared in May 2008 it was freezing senior executive pay in response to the high fuel prices, just two months before it announced the job cuts.

Mr Dixon's latest salary beats even the pay packet of Gerard Arpey, the boss of AMR Corporation, which runs the largest commercial carrier, American Airlines. Mr Arpey's total pay was $US4.6 million last year, including a base of $US656,000 and stock awards of $US3.1 million.

The Australian also trumps the $US7.73 million ($10.3 million) Northwest Airlines paid its boss, Douglas Steenland, last year, and the $US7.31 million Continental gave its chief executive, Larry Kellner. US Airways, the fifth-largest airline in the US, paid its chief executive and chairman, Douglas Parker, a total package of $US5.4 million, including a base salary of $US550,000.

The pay of European airline executives is modest in comparison with that of Mr Dixon or the Americans.

"It is an absolute double standard. How shareholders and the board let this happen, you have to wonder," the assistant national secretary of the Australian Services Union, Linda White, said yesterday.

"Rewarding one of those at the top doesn't mean you have the best airline in the world."

The boss of British Airways, Willie Walsh, pocketed £701,000 ($1.6 million) for the year to March. He turned down a £700,000 bonus after a disastrous opening of Heathrow's Terminal 5 in London.

Air France-KLM paid its chief executive and chairman, Jean-Cyril Spinetta, a total package of €1.39 million ($2.5 million) for the year to March, which included fixed pay of €750,000.

Europe's second-largest airline, Lufthansa, gave its boss, Wolfgang Mayrhuber, €2.4 million last year, including a base salary of €700,000 and a bonus of €1.4 million.

In Asia, Singapore Airlines paid its boss, Chew Choon Seng, up to $S3.5 million ($3.1 million) for the year to March 31.

Mr Dixon steps down as chief executive on November 28 but will remain as a consultant until March. Qantas declined to comment yesterday.

I know the title of this story was "No comment" but I just can't resist.

I believe in paying people what they're worth but when times are tough, and they are, just ask Geoff Dixon, we should all tighten our belts. Asking the rank and file to do more for less I have no problem with. Where I get bewildered is when these so called leaders ask their staff, who in today's economy struggle to make ends meet, to do without while they accept these huge salaries and bonuses.
Maybe Mr Dixon should've taken a leaf out of Mr Walsh's book and not accepted the bonus payment.

Good Generals will fight side by side with their men. That's how victories are won.
Poor Generals will sit behind the lines and expect their men to do what they themselves are not prepared to do.
This is just as true and relevant in the corporate world as it is in the military.

If these so called leaders were worth even a tenth of what they are being paid they would realise this.
If you get your workforce behind you and your vision then you and your company will be unstoppable.