Morrisons Boss Dalton Philips Forgoes Bonus on Payroll Data Theft and Profit Warning

Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips is abstaining from receiving a £374,000 cash and share bonus after the group was rocked by a payroll data theft scandal and a 13% drop in profits for 2013.

According to media reports, the budget supermarket's boss waived the bonus awarded to him by the remuneration committee, even though it is worth only 22% of his basic salary and he is allowed up to 200% of his pay in extra rewards.

While Philips was granted a bonus, he had failed to meet the bonus criteria in his contract.

He did, however, meet the strategic criteria which involves launching new stores.

The news comes after Morrisons posted its lowest annual profit for five years and announced it would invest £1bn ($1.67bn, €1.2bn) in price cuts over three years to win back customers. It also posted a profit warning for the future.

Soon after, the group revealed that sensitive financial data from its staff payroll system has been stolen and published on the internet, putting 100,000 staff at risk.

The information, which was also sent on a disc to a newspaper, included bank account details of the Bradford-based chain's employees.

A spokesman for Morrisons, which has 569 stores including 72 local stores across the UK, said that it immediately ensured it was taken off the website.

In March, Britain's business secretary Vince Cable warned banks and companies that the government will be forced to install stricter salary and bonus rules if firms don't stop awarding hefty pay packages that are disproportionate to financial performance.