The problems for the Lloyds Chief Executive, Mr. Antonio Horta-Osorio, just keep on piling up. A week ago, the bank suspended its share buyback scheme because it needed to set aside up to £1.8bn to cover claims relating to the mis-selling of PPI. It seems the bank hadn’t anticipated the deadline effect.
And if that wasn’t bad enough 90% of staff surveyed by the largest independent union in Lloyds, said that Horta-Osorio doesn’t deserve his £6 million pay and benefits package. 81% of staff said that it was greed that drove Horta-Osorio to protect his own final salary pension whilst removing it for everyone else. The Lloyds Chief Executive is fast becoming the lightning rod for all that is wrong with executive pay and pensions.
In the course of his evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee, Mr. Stuart Sinclair, Chairman of Lloyds Banking Group’s Remuneration Committee, made two remarkable statements. He said he had visited lots of branches to find out what staff were thinking on key issues like executive pay and pensions and that those staff he spoke to considered Mr. Antonio Horta-Osorio, Group Chief Executive of Lloyds Banking Group to be “charismatic” and a “winner” and deserved his £6 million pay package. That was news to staff and us.
Following the Committee hearing, we sent a survey to a representative sample of members in Lloyds, covering all the main business units, asking for their views on some of the issues raised by Mr. Sinclair in his evidence.
The Survey Results
The full results of that survey are as follows:
- 98% of staff responding to the survey said they had never been contacted by Mr. Sinclair directly or by the bank asking them for their views on executive pay and pensions.
- 98% of respondents said they were not aware of anyone in their office or branch who had been contacted either by Mr. Sinclair directly or by the bank asking for their views on executive pay and pensions.
- 90% of respondents said the Group Chief Executive didn’t deserve his £6 million pay package.
- 91% of respondents said the Group Chief Executive didn’t deserve the £50 million package he’d earned since taking up his executive role in Lloyds.
- Only 12% of respondents said that they would describe Mr. Horta-Osorio as a “Charismatic Winner”.
- Only 7% of respondents said they would consider putting their views on Mr. Horta-Osorio’s pay and pensions package on Hive, the bank’s internal social media site.
- 81% of respondents said it was greed that drove Mr. Horta-Osorio decision not to apply the 0% pensions cap to his own final salary pension.
- 93% of respondents agreed with us that the bank’s annual engagement survey should include questions about executive pay and pensions.
The union’s full response to the Work and Pensions Committee’s investigation into executive pay and pensions can be found here.