PM censures Finnair CEO’s extra pension plan
Published : 09 Aug 2017, 00:53
Updated : 09 Aug 2017, 17:57
Prime Minister Juha Sipilä on Tuesday censured the supplementary pension plan approved for Finnair Chief Executive Officer Pekka Vauramo.
He also said the amount was granted against the government’s state ownership steering policy.
Vauramo was granted a pension amount of EUR 130,000 in 2016 on top of his occupational pension.
“As the responsible minister, I was not informed by the state ownership steering unit before the company’s board made the decision,” the prime minister told the news agency STT.
He also said Finnair should not have given extra pension payments of EUR 130,000 to its CEO in 2016, because it was a violation of the government guidelines for state-owned companies.
Sipilä took over as the minister responsible for state ownership steering at the same time when he was made the prime minister of the country in 2015.
Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä took over the charge of state steering ownership in April this year.
Lintilä on Monday termed the supplementary pension plan approved for the Finnair CEO conflicting.
He also decided to discuss the issue with the respective authorities, said a government press release.
The state owns 55.8 per cent of Finnair and as the majority owner it could have been able to block the plan to award an additional pension. However, since 2012 no actual government representative has been on the Finnair executive board.
The chairman of the Finnair board, Jouko Karvinen on Monday admitted to local media that the decision was not in compliance with the will of the state owner. The decision had been published last year and the government had not reacted in any way, Karvinen noted.
A Finnish language newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published the report on Monday on the pension issue where it raised the question whether Prime Minister Juha Sipilä had been informed about the pension decision.