HELSINKI, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- A decision by the board of the state majority owned airline Finnair to pay an additional pension to its CEO Pekka Vauramo has caused political consternation in Finland.
Mika Lintila, Minister of Economic Affairs and the cabinet politician supervising government owned companies, said he learned from the media last week that Finnair in 2016 decided that Vauramo would be paid annually 130,000 euros (153,322 U.S. dollars) as an additional pension.
However, ministerial level decisions were taken in the government in 2012 and 2016 that state owned or partially owned companies would not use additional pension as a perk. The then-CEO Mika Vehvilainen confirmed Finnair's adherence to the policy in 2013.
In Finnair, the alternative last year was to give CEO Vauramo a 20-pecent raise, and a plan to use additional pension was chosen instead of usual pay increase. Under the Finnish system, the pension contributions will result in a better net income than a pay increase which would be taxed heavily.
Lintila demanded both Finnair and the government unit supervising state owned companies to give explanations. However, Lintila said in a press release on Monday afternoon that the explanations were conflicting in content.
The state of Finland owns 55.8 percent of Finnair and as the majority owned it could have been able to block the plan to award an additional pension. However, since 2012 no actual government representative has been on the Finnair executive board.
The chairman of the Finnair board Jouko Karvinen told local media on Monday he acknowledged that the decision was not in compliance with the will of the state owner. The decision had been published last year and the government had not reacted in any way, Karvinen noted.
Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat's correspondent Iiro-Matti Nieminen raised the issue on Monday whether Prime Minister Juha SIpila had been informed about the pension decision. In 2016, Sipila was himself in charge of state owned companies and the duty was only transferred to minister Lintila in a reshuffle this spring. Enditem
