Bombardier’s board of directors has approved cutting Executive Chairman Pierre Beaudoin’s pay by $1.4 million USD to his 2015 rate of $3.8 million USD.
The pay cut was requested by Beaudoin after filing documents made public last month revealed that the total compensation for senior executives jumped 50 percent from $21.9 million USD to $32.7 million USD. Previously CEO Alain Bellemare asked the board to defer more than half of the planned pay for executives until 2020.
The hefty increases for the top floor suites came after a tough year for Bombardier which saw 14,500 employees laid off and the company receiving more than $1 billion in federal and provincial bailouts.
At first, Bombardier defended the increases saying they were awarded after the executives reached “performance targets” as part of their contracts.
But as public backlash grew (including a tongue lashing from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau), the top execs started relenting and Beaudoin said the controversy over pay became “a distraction” to efforts to turn the company around.