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Golden Parachutes have reached limit, the Kommersant notes

It is proposed to limit the sum of compensation for state corporation presidents by annual salary

United Russia lawmakers plan to amend the Labor Code with the view of restricting the so-called "golden parachutes" for presidents of state corporations and organizations with government stakes. The lawmakers' initiative came ahead of the government's. President Vladimir Putin had ordered the government to draw the relevant bill by July 1. If the lawmakers' bill is passed, the leadership of state corporations can count on a compensation worth from three months of salary to annual salary, while directors of companies with government stakes - from three times to 18 times monthly salary. The state corporations welcomed the lawmakers' initiative.

The issue of "golden parachutes" - a compensation paid to top executives of joint-stock companies in case of their voluntary resignation or dismissal - assumed urgency in April, when Rostelecom paid 200 million roubles to outgoing director Alexander Provotorov/ during a conference of the All-Russia People's Front /ONF/, United Russia lawmaker Valery Trapeznikov drew Vladimir Putin’s' attention to the fact that "Russians do not understand such things"/.

Mr Putin ordered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to work out, by July 1, the measures to limit "gold parachutes for the heads of state corporations." However, Mr Trapeznikov and his ONF colleagues in the United Russia faction have beaten the government to it.

The lawmakers are amending the Labor Code with an article which limits the sum of "gold parachutes." For heads of state corporations, it cannot exceed their annual salary, or be smaller than an average three months' salary /provided the official incurs no blame for his actions/inaction/. For heads of organizations with government stakes, the compensation cannot exceed three to 18 months worth of average monthly salary /a company qualifies as an organization with government stake if this stake in its authorized capital exceeds 50 percent/.

Rostelecom, which started the "golden parachute" scandal, set the payment for new company head Sergei Kalugin /appointed in late March/ at 20 million roubles. The "golden parachute" of the outgoing Rostelecom president Alexander Provotorov made up 200 million roubles, i.e. it amounted to his three-year income. If the restrictions had been in force then, the top manager would have received up to 120 million roubles.

Human resources market experts said the proposed restrictions were more than adequate.

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