Hollande set to slash pay of bosses at state-owned firms
THE PAY packets of France’s top bosses are set to shrink after president François Hollande yesterday unveiled drastic salary-cutting measures.
Top executives of companies which are majority owned by the state will have their salaries capped to twenty times that of the firm’s lowliest worker in a law set to be approved as soon as next month.
The measure will affect the 52 companies which are majority owned by the state, such as Electricite de France (EDF) and Areva but businesses which are less than 50 per cent owned by France are not guaranteed to escape scot-free.
The government, which holds a 15.9 per cent stake in Air France, said earlier this week it will today vote against a €400,000 indemnity payment to the loss-making airline’s former chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.
The salary-slashing step was one of Hollande’s election campaign vows alongside his pledge to introduce a 75 per cent top rate of tax – deemed by the newly elected president to be an act of “morality”.