Payday for Rio Tinto’s former CEOs Jean-Sebastien Jacques, Sam Walsh
Jean-Sebastien Jacques to get pay rise despite losing bonuses over Rio’s Juukan Gorge debacle, as Sam Walsh gets another $17.6m.
Former Rio Tinto boss Jean-Sebastien Jacques will get a pay rise for 2020 despite losing his cash bonus for the year and being stripped of £1m ($1.8m) in long-term bonuses over the Juukan Gorge debacle, as former chief executive Sam Walsh gets another $17.6m deferred payout.
Rio released its annual report on Monday, saying it had paid another $17.6m to Mr Walsh from entitlements frozen in 2017 while anti-corruption authorities investigated a payment to a consultant on Rio’s Simandou iron ore project in Guinea.
Mr Walsh initially agreed to defer payments of his long-term incentive while investigations were conducted by regulators in the UK over the payments. The investigations are ongoing, but the two sides could not reach agreement over an extension of the deferments, and Rio said in March the payments would resume, including interest and dividends, after a dispute resolution ruled they could no longer be held up.
The former Rio boss was paid $6.8m in March, and Rio’s annual report said he received another $17.6m at the end of 2020. A third instalment is still due, although Rio did not say how much or when it would be paid.
The report said Mr Jacques was paid £7.2m in 2020 despite the loss of short- and long-term bonuses over the destruction of 46,000 year old heritage sites at Juukan Gorge, with the former Rio boss’s annual payments up 20 per cent to £7.2m ($12.8m) compared to 2019.
Rio said the bulk of the additional payments related to the substantial share price rise for Rio’s stock since he took control of the company in 2016.
Mr Jacques remains on Rio’s payroll until the end of March, according to the terms of the agreement he reached with the board over his September resignation, and Rio said he is entitled to the payment of another five months’ salary, worth about £519,000 after that point.
Rio iron ore boss Chris Salisbury and corporate relations chief Simone Niven also stepped down in September over the destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters. The pair were also stripped of their short term bonus payments for 2020 over the disaster, but both received payment of 8 months wages in lieu of notice – worth $718,000 in Mr Salisbury’s case and £307,000 for Ms Niven, who also received a £448,000 severance payment under UK employment law.
Both will be eligible for payment of long-term bonuses under their previous contractual arrangements, Rio said.