PowerGen chief in new pay row

BFresh controversy erupted over boardroom pay at privatised utilities yesterday when the chief executive of PowerGen revealed his other "little jobs" and the company confirmed it was planning widespread redundancies.

Ed Wallis, who received £880,000 from share options last year on top of his £300,000 salary, indicated to the Commons employment committee that his other interests were hardly worth mentioning.

However, the £36,000 that Mr Wallis earns from four days work a year at three other organisations netted him more than twice the average annual pay of the British workforce and £3,000 more than the MPs sitting on the committee.

Mr Wallis receives £17,000 a year from the British Standards Institute, £10,000 a year from Mercury Asset Management and £9,000 from RVE, a German power generator.

Sir Colin Southgate, PowerGen chairman, revealed that between 700 and 1,000 jobs were still to be cut from the 3,000-strong workforce. There were more than 9,500 employees at the time of privatisation.

He confirmed the company had created a "core" workforce,and a "non-core" section who according to some managers are in the "departure lounge". Sir Colin said he would be lying if he said PowerGen was not keen to keep the most skilled and energetic workers.

Greville Janner, chairman of employment committee, remarked that such an admission could lead to claims for unfair dismissal if employees were made compulsorily redundant.

The PowerGen chairman said he earned £150,000 a year from his part-time job at the company for which he worked as little as one day a week. Sir Colin also received £505,000 "basic" salary as chairman of the electronics group Thorn EMI.

Both Mr Wallis and Sir Colin insisted that they were paid the market rate and that their remuneration was also set through performance.

Sir Colin doubted the need for legislation to force companies to disclose directors' pay. He said their remuneration should be revealed automatically and disclosure could be achieved by amending Stock Exchange rules for listed companies.

Sir Colin had submitted his opinions to a CBI committee on directors' pay chaired by Sir Richard Greenbury, chairman of Marks & Spencer. Sir Richard has been called before a private session of the employment committee next month.

An attempt by Conservative MPs to unseat Mr Janner from the chairmanship seemed to have been abandoned yesterday. Some senior Tories were believed to have become increasingly concerned about the bad publicity that committee appearances were attracting, but were dissuaded from moving against Mr Janner by the possibility of challenges to Tory chairmen of other committees.

Contracts row, page 32