The ex-leader of Crossroads waives his severance pay

PARIS (Reuters) – The former head of Carrefour (PA:CARR) Georges Plassat at the heart of a controversy about the conditions of her departure, has decided to waive the payment of the indemnity, non-competition, announced on Saturday that the Carrefour group.

The former CEO of Carrefour, who left the group in July 2017 at the age of 68 years and asserted his rights to retirement, has received a non-competition indemnity for a gross amount of 3,98 million euro.

This compensation, as well as the level of remuneration of the new officer, Alexandre Bompard, had been strongly contested Friday at the annual general meeting of shareholders of the group and of the trade union organisations, which have pointed the finger against the performance of the distributor.

The Economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, said on Saturday to Reuters that it considered the level of such remuneration “incomprehensible and shocking”, given the “situation worsened” in which former leaders have left the group.

He called on employers to “take strong measures to strengthen the monitoring and implementation by its members of the Afep-Medef code”, a code of good conduct for the companies.

“Georges Plassat has indicated to the Board of Directors of the Company to Carrefour that because of the misunderstanding that surrounds the financial terms of his departure, he had decided to waive the application of the non-competition clause to which he had been granted and, therefore, the payment of severance pay corresponding”, we read in the press release the Carrefour Group.

The Medef and the Afep also announced Saturday that they will release an “enhanced version of the corporate governance code in the next few days”. “It will incorporate recommendations to avoid discrepancies observed recently,” one can read in the press release.

The High Committee of corporate governance (HCGE), which oversees the application of this code, had stated that the manner of determination of such compensation constituted “deviations serious” in comparison to the governance standards developed.

Georges Plassat has received a remuneration – fixed and variable -1.7 million euros gross as of 2017 as well as a plan of long-term compensation of 6.6 million gross.

Alexandre Bompard has received, as of 2017, a fixed salary of € 750,000 gross and a variable compensation of 1.24 million euros gross, to be the maximum amount provided for in the event of achievement of certain performance objectives.

According to the consulting firm for investors, Proxinvest, the results of Intersection do not warrant such a bonus. The group has seen its operating performance to fall in 2017, and its net income switch in the red after major expenses.

The resolutions on the remuneration of Georges Plassat and Alexander Bombard were adopted Friday to 68.3% and 74.3% of the vote respectively.

(Caroline Pailliez, edited by Arthur Connan)