Should the Qantas board cut Alan Joyces pay deal down to size? [Video]

The optics of this week’s revelation that Qantas is leaning its shoulder into an effort to potentially claw back up to $16 million from former chief executive Alan Joyce are public relations gold.

Qantas has confirmed it has enlisted the influential “grey man” of governance to advise on whether to strip all or a portion of $16 million from Joyce’s performance-based pay entitlement.

Such an outcome could surely see blowback from Joyce – the pugnacious leader who left the airline amid claims of poor customer service and fractured industrial relations.

The board always had some discretion to curb some of Joyce’s short and long-term incentives. It is just that this option was mooted last year by the outgoing chairman, Richard Goyder – …