Philip Green comes under scrutiny this morning for continuing to haul in vast pay checks for himself and his family while BHS was left floundering in the waters of bankruptcy. According to the Guardian, Green and his family extracted more than £580 million in dividends, rental payments and interest from the high-street former giant before selling its washed-up corpse for a quid last year. The pensions regulator is currently considering coming after Green for £200-£300 million to help fill ‘the black hole’ in BHS’s pension scheme.
‘An institutional overhaul is required,’ writes shadow chancellor John McDonnell in a letter to the Times. He proposes that under a Labour government companies would operate a system whereby all employees had a say in setting the executive salaries. Dismissing the idea that big pay packets lead to better performances, he says: ‘It’s time to end the remuneration racket… Pay, particularly for the most senior staff, needs to be set in a fair and transparent fashion.’
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