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Kate Swann, chief executive of high street newsagent W H Smith, secured a maximum bonus payout of £2.45m only after removing the staff's long-standing pension benefits, reports the Daily Telegraph.
The retailer made a £2m annual saving by closing the final salary pension scheme to its 1,800 members last year, the report and accounts reveal. Had the scheme not been closed, the company would have missed the profit target under Ms Swann's three-year "management investment plan", set up in 2004.
W H Smith confirmed that her bonus would have been £120,000 lower had the pension scheme been left open.
The newspaper quotes Ann Field, national officer at the union Unite: "She's one of a long list of company directors who have made their money on the backs of others. She's brought it to a new low, though, earning a bonus by destroying other people's pensions."