The TAP Compensation Committee approved Christine Urmier-Widener’s contract, but not the bonus.

The former chairman of TAP’s remuneration committee confirmed on Tuesday that the body had decided not to approve the bonus stipulated in the contract of the former executive chairman, who joined the company in mid-2021, and Brussels has not approved the restructuring.

“We decided to approve the contract and did not approve the variable remuneration depending on the business environment in which we lived, the restructuring plan, and that we, the Compensation Committee, unanimously understood that it would be prudent not to immediately approve these variable remunerations until until all the details are clear. situation with TAP,” said Luis Cabas Martins, who was the president of the body empowered to determine the policy of remuneration of the governing bodies, in response to the Social Democrat MP Paulo Moniz in the parliamentary commission of inquiry on the airline.

The former manager, who was no longer Chairman of the Compensation Committee but a member of Christine Urmier-Widener when Christine Urmier-Widener joined the company in mid-2021, stepped down at the end of that year.

After the remuneration committee set a fixed remuneration for directors in August 2021, it was decided that the variable remuneration will depend on the approval of the restructuring plan by the European Commission, which took place on 21 December 2021.

Luis Cabasu Martins added that this committee had access to Christine Urmier-Widener’s contract after it was signed to see if it could be approved in light of TAP’s remuneration policy.

Thus, he pointed out, a fixed salary, a subsidy for living, some social benefits, insurance and use of a mobile phone were determined for the former executive president.

At a hearing on April 19 before the Commission of Inquiry, Thiago Remuneration Commission Chairman Aires Mateusz said that the body received on February 6 – already after the case of compensation to former administrator Alexandra Reis became known – an email from the airline secretary about the establishment of variable remuneration for members Board of Directors of the airline.

According to that email, “one year after the approval of the restructuring plan, the remuneration committee, which is the competent authority to implement this decision, has still not made a decision on this matter.”

“We ask that the remuneration committee meet and make a decision on the variable remuneration of the Board of Directors as soon as possible,” said the email, quoted by Ayres Matheus.

At the same hearing, the chairman of TAP’s remuneration committee stated that the body had not considered, and “unlikely” would consider, paying a bonus to a former executive president fired by a shareholder.

On February 3, before the dismissal of the presidents of the company for a good reason, the Minister of Infrastructure, Joao Galamba, said that “the payroll committee has decided to set the gross remuneration in accordance with the agreement”, but did not set, in 2021, when Christine Urmier- Widener, “a bonus for a very simple reason, because the bonus is entirely tied to the successful TAP restructuring.”

“As you know, in 2021, an international recruitment process was carried out and a number of conditions were agreed, which then have to be ratified by the General Assembly, delegated to the remuneration committee,” Joao Galamba explained in statements to journalists.

Responding to Deputy Carlos Guimarães Pint of Illinois on Tuesday, Luis Cabas Martins said that while he was president, it was the remuneration committee that determined the criteria for the executive president’s variable remuneration, which he knows happened in the case of Christine Urmier-Widener.

However, Cabasu Martins acknowledged that it was reasonable that, having been hired as CEO from outside, “certain conditions” were set at the opening of this procedure, which the Compensation Committee was not informed of.

When asked by BE’s Mariana Mortagua about bonuses paid to directors for 2016, when it was determined that there would be no bonuses for that year, the former chairman of the Compensation Committee acknowledged that the change was his responsibility and that the criteria were determined after they became the results of the company are known.

“We were approached by shareholders with a proposal to reconsider our position on this issue, given a number of the circumstances mentioned, namely the good performance of the company,” he explained.

Thus, this committee decided to award prizes to three directors, but only then-executive chairman Fernando Pinto and COO Trey Urban received awards, while David Pedrosa did not.

“Minutes [da reunião da Comissão de Vencimentos] gives performance awards to three, I don’t know who received them,” he stressed.

Asked about the news in Nascer do Sol that former TAP administrator Alexandra Reis had been hired by the Barraqueiro group, Luis Cabasu Martins explained that it was the provision of consulting services for the area of ​​procurement.