All in this together: rewards slashed for Britain's top bosses

BOSSES from three of Britain's biggest companies have had their pay packages for the last year slashed. The executives from BP, GlaxoSmithKline and the parent company of British Airways missed out on a combined £3.6m in pay.

Willie Walsh (pictured), chief executive of International Airlines Group, owner of British Airways, had his annual bonus snatched from him by the company's board due to the weak performance of its Spanish airline, Iberia.

• See The Business for The Week's daily news round-up

Walsh is said to be "relaxed" about the board's decision to freeze his basic salary at £825,000 for the second year running, reports The Independent. He has, however, been offered a maximum £1.65m in shares over the next three years if he manages to revive the group's fortunes.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Meanwhile Sir Andrew Witty, chief executive of pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline, saw his pay package almost halve from £6.8m in 2011 to £3.9m last year following a drop in profits.

The drugs company's revenues took a hit after falling sales in austerity-hit Europe. A Glaxo spokesperson told City AM the fall should not come as a surprise as "we've always had pay related to the company's performance".

It has also emerged that BP's American chief executive Bob Dudley received no performance-related shares for 2012, compared with the $780,000-worth of perks he received the previous year.

The company is continuing to suffer the after-effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico but the Independent notes Dudley's pension did increase by $7.3m last year.

The news may provide some comfort to British employees feeling the pinch. According to the Metro, the TUC has estimated pay packets across the UK have fallen by 4.5 per cent in real terms between the beginning of the financial crisis in 2007 and 2011.