There's nothing like an executive-pay list to get workers riled up--especially if those workers have suffered financial cutbacks. And if the workers are already mad enough to strike, then news about the boss' fat wallet can be especially galling. Such is the situation in the U.K. today, where news about AstraZeneca CEO David Brennan's (photo) pension plan has employees fighting back.
Brennan's pension entitlement is the third-biggest in the U.K., behind executives at Shell and Carnival Group, the Manchester Evening News reports. It stands at £915,000 a year ($1.42 million), 50 percent higher than two years ago, the newspaper says. Meanwhile, the company has decided to freeze employee pensions, a move that has prompted one walkout in the U.K., with another scheduled for today.
"This is in sharp contrast with the decision to freeze pensionable pay for the UK's AstraZeneca workers," Paul Kenny, secretary of the striking GMB union, tells the Evening News. "It is another case of boardroom greed and a culture which is summed up by 'do as I say not as I do'. " The company, for its part, says that comparing Brennan's pension program to the U.K. workers' plans isn't possible because Brennan joined AstraZeneca in the U.S. under that country's benefits plan.
- read the Evening News story