BETTER PAY THAN PM

RECENTLY appointed CEO of Caribbean Airlines (CAL) Garvin Medera was in the hot seat yesterday as he faced a barrage of questions from a parliamentary Joint Select Committee on the salaries and bonuses of 11 senior officials of the company.

The newly-appointed managers were quoted as earning salaries ranging from $70,000 to $90,000.

Questions were raised over the transparency and legitimacy of their appointments, in light of recommendations by the JSC that the airline should hold off on financial incentives.

Committee member Wade Mark raised questions about the appointments and the managers being given a sign-on bonus of six months’ salary for a five-year contract. Both arrangements, he said, were in direct breach of recommendations made during the JSC’s last hearing.

Citing the current unprofitable status of CAL, Mark asked who approved this allowance and reminded Medera that the JSC’s authority was enshrined in the Constitution.

Medera said performance incentives were necessary, citing a need for improved service and productivity, and said CAL had already begun to see signs of improvement as a result of the bonuses.

However, JSC member Cherrie-Ann Critchlow-Cockburn said there was no evidence that these additions changed the company’s strategy and questioned five appointments.

Committee chairman Senator David Small asked about the recent appointment of a general manager for cargo, saying nothing on the record explained his experience or the qualifications that made him a suitable candidate, and the appointment was discouraging to the JSC’s mandate to help the airline recover from its history of gross mismanagement.

The manager’s last job was as a caterer.

“You have someone who is in charge of cargo, on paper here, earning $71,000 a month. The last experience noted to us here has to do with catering.

“So we try to understand the link between someone who was involved in food management being the general manager of cargo of an airline. The link for us doesn’t exist. It stands out to us as something that should not have happened.

“What he is earning is five times what we are earning. He is earning more than the Prime Minister. How does this happen?”

Medera explained the large salaries by saying those appointed under him as CEO were scholarship winners and leaders in their respective fields.

Referring to the cargo manager, he said the person in question had an MBA, was the head of a profitable business before his appointment, and made a valuable contribution to the company.

Of the appointees in general he said: “They are the cream of the crop in terms of talent.

What we missed for a long time in CAL is business leadership, to move out of this idea of someone functionally performing in one area. The role that we created was the general manager for cargo and new business, so we are thinking about the future.”

Small said while he understood Medera’s goal of revitalising the company and taking a more innovation-driven approach to management, he could not reconcile going against the JSC’s recommendations.