Petrobras proposes to its shareholders to set aside BRL 13.1 million for the payment of bonuses to its directors in 2022, the year in which it recorded a record profit of BRL 106.6 billion. The proposal will be considered at the meeting on April 13.
The amount is almost equivalent to the expenditure in 2021, but that year the figure contained INSS and FGTS charges, which does not occur in 2022. In both cases, the budget includes bonuses for performance in the previous year and installments from other years.
Sought, Petrobras has not yet informed what the specific award will be on the 2021 result. The bonus payment is calculated on a series of goals, ranging from the profitability of operations to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
​The company’s compensation policy was changed in 2019, right at the beginning of the Bolsonaro government, guaranteeing higher values ​​for directors and executives. Under the current model, the company’s president can receive up to 13 bonus salaries if all targets are met.
For employees without bonus functions, the maximum premium is equivalent to 2.6 times the monthly income. The change was criticized by the company’s employee unions, who saw greater equity in the previous model of profit sharing.
In all, Petrobras proposes to spend BRL 39.6 million on executive compensation for its management, including directors and directors, in 2022. The amount is 15.9% lower than in 2021, which included INSS and FGTS expenses. Excluding these items, there was a rise of 0.37%.
In the assembly’s voting manual, Petrobras says that the board will not have a salary readjustment. For the payment of directors’ salaries, the company proposes to set aside R$ 14.1 million, which would give an average salary of R$ 1.5 million per year for each director – or R$ 121 thousand per month plus 13th salary.
The salaries paid to the management of Petrobras were criticized by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in early 2021, when the government began to live with complaints about the rise in fuel prices after the pandemic.
“Does anyone know how much the president of Petrobras earns? R$50,000 a week? It’s more than that a week. So, there are things that aren’t right,” Bolsonaro said in February, three days after he fired Roberto Castello Branco from the helm. of the company.
Even so, the Union approved in April of that year an increase of 8.5% in the company’s budget for the remuneration of its executives, including salaries and bonuses for the performance of previous years. In 2020, Petrobras recorded a profit of BRL 7.1 billion.
Currently, the company has been criticized, including by the government, for the high distribution of dividends to its shareholders at a time of inflationary pressure caused by high fuel prices.
For the 2021 profit, Petrobras proposed the payment of R$ 101.4 billion in dividends.
At the meeting on the 13th, Petrobras shareholders will also assess the nomination of Flamengo’s president, Rodolfo Landim, to preside over the company’s board of directors, in place of Admiral Eduardo Bacellar Leal Ferreira, who asked to leave citing personal reasons.
A former employee of the state-owned company, where he worked for 26 years before joining Eike Batista’s former business group, he became Bolsonaro’s ally in the debate on reopening stadiums after the pandemic.
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