In the wake of public anger over bonus payments, Bombardier's board of directors has officially approved a plan to delay those payments until 2020.
In meeting on Monday CEO Alain Bellemare asked the board to delay the payments for six executives, including himself, and to make them contingent on the company meeting objectives.
Chair Pierre Beaudoin asked the board to cut his 2016 compensation by US$1.4 million, bringing it down to the same amount he received for 2015: US$3.85 million.
The move comes after about 200 people protested outside Bombardier's Montreal offices on Sunday, and Quebec Solidaire MNA Amir Khadir delivered a petition with 34,000 names to the office of Economic Development Minister Dominique Anglade.
"Corporate greed is making people more and more angry," said Khadir.
His petition called on the provincial government to revisit its financial support of Bombardier, and give Quebec a say in how upper management at the company is paid.
"I think we're at the point where people see that this government is unfortunately is at the service of the very tiny one per cent of those millionaires and those corporate leaders instead of listening to its own people," said Khadir.
Anglade agreed that Bombardier was out of line paying substantial bonuses while the company is laying off 14,500 workers over two years, while getting $1 billion from the provincial government and a $370 million loan from Ottawa.
"It was not acceptable. We need to change the way Bombardier's leaders were thinking," said Anglade.
However Anglade will not reopen the deal, saying Bombardier was in need of financial support.
"We invested in the company at a time when the company was really struggling," said the minister.
