In short, very short terms, the “golden parachute” is a severance pay. Parsing the topic of "golden parachutes" in more detail, you should start with the name. This term came to us from America. The first time a huge severance pay was received by a person who worked in a company related to aircraft manufacturing. From here it happened: “golden” - because it is fabulously large, and “parachute” - because it is connected with aviation.
Of course, now this interpretation is irrelevant, because a huge number of "golden parachutes" get people working in companies that are very far from airplanes.
There is no single answer to the question whether this is good or bad. If there is such a practice, then something has contributed to its appearance.
What are they needed for
Basically, "golden parachutes" were invented supposedly in order to protect enterprises from absorption by other companies. In plain language, when a corporation wants to own another, it will have to pay such compensation to the top managers of the acquired company that it might be better to leave them at their workplaces or abandon their plans altogether.
In fact, the size of such a payment is large for someone who can receive it, but not for the company, which must pay. The profit of such a corporation is not comparable with payments to employees, and even the one that wants to "absorb" it at all. So it is unlikely that the "golden parachutes" of leading experts can save the company from the so-called hostile takeover.
In order to attract a highly qualified specialist, you need to provide him with some guarantees. For this, in particular, “golden parachutes” were invented. In this case, their size may depend on the profit of the company, and profit on the talent and abilities of the employee involved. Also, the contract concluded with a specialist may stipulate a period after which upon termination he will be entitled to receive severance pay.
How are things with this in Russia
In fact, everything is not so simple and primitive. It is possible to delve into the study of this topic indefinitely, but not a single hypothesis about the occurrence and expediency of this phenomenon can be unambiguous. Another thing is that when some foreign practice begins to be applied in Russia, it is brought to such an absurdity that it is very difficult or even impossible to cut the appetites of recipients of all kinds of rewards without the intervention of the president.
"Golden parachutes" for officials - what is it?
So why do we need huge severance pay for deputies and officials at various levels? Golden parachutes for officials - what is it, a whim or a necessity? After all, as a rule, they were in their posts as a result of elections, in which no one forced anyone to participate. Unfortunately, the answer is in the question itself. To this end, some went to power in order to provide themselves with profitable contracts that the same person can create and conclude with almost himself. This practice became possible due to the fact that the "golden parachutes" of Russia are a relatively new phenomenon. There is no legislative base governing the appointment and receipt of payments of this kind, which is what the leaders of all stripes use dishonestly at hand.
Do officials need "golden parachutes"?
This statement does not mean at all that everyone in power is only thinking about their personal well-being. If a person who works in good faith in the public service suddenly finds himself out of work, then he needs social guarantees. However, it should be noted that the keyword here is still “in good faith”. Obtaining astronomical amounts from the budgets of subsidized regions is not justified in any way. Here, one should pay attention to what was done by the leader in order to remove the subject under his care from the category of subsidized ones, and then to think how to reward him for it.
On the other hand, the complete abolition of the "golden parachutes" can lead to the fact that power will turn out to be worthless people who simply will not know what to do with it, power. After all, the responsibility assumed by the head of any level, starting from the municipality and ending with the State Duma, is very high. The best specialists in this field should work here. Remuneration for such work should also be adequate.
How many?!
To imagine how much payment some individuals can receive, it’s enough to say about the “golden parachute” of the head of one of the Russian telecommunications companies. After the termination of his powers, this person was to receive 280 million rubles of severance pay. It is hard to imagine what kind of merit you can get an amount that is comparable to the annual budget of a small municipality.
Deputies and Golden Parachutes
"Golden parachutes" of deputies of various levels would also not hurt to review and, if possible, cut or completely cancel. After all, now even the candidate who has not been re-elected for the next term or who has resigned ahead of schedule has the right to receive the so-called penalty in the amount of several monthly salaries - no matter for what reasons.
Of course, there are cases in which people should be paid salaries for some time. For example, moving the election deadline to an earlier one. However, when transferring the elections to the State Duma from December 4 to September 18, 2016, to save all payments and severance pay to those deputies who will not be re-elected, 714 million rubles will be required. This amount seemed too large even to the developers of the bill, according to which it could be paid. Consequently, the law on "golden parachutes" should be once again revised.
Payments to Governors
For the governor, a “golden parachute” is also a matter requiring regulation at the state level. Indeed, in some regions of Russia, governors appoint such lifelong privileges for themselves, and even not only for themselves, but also for the team of their deputies: a monthly salary in the amount of only 20 percent inferior to the salary received by an official during his reign, transport service, spa treatment, special communications, the use of state apartments and cottages, and much more.
There are also such subjects of the federation, and there are 11 of them, which do not provide any guarantees to former leaders. To bring this state of affairs to a single order, and you need to do this at the highest state legislative level.
Golden parachutes - not for everyone
According to the latest law on payments of this kind signed by the president, “golden parachutes” were canceled for municipal officials and governors who were dismissed for any reason that did not provide for any compensation. For example, due to non-compliance with some restrictions and prohibitions or failure to fulfill one’s duties.
If the manager honestly worked in his post for a long time and reached retirement age or lost his ability to work, then state guarantees will be saved.
About the size of severance pay
The outgoing head of Rostelecom received 200 million rubles, and the former director of Norilsk Nickel received $ 100 million! This was the reason for introducing restrictions on the size of severance pay to managers of state-owned enterprises. As a result, under the law of the chapter state corporations entitled to receive compensation in the amount of from 3 to 8 monthly salaries, and companies with state participation - from 3 to 18 after the termination of their powers.
The biggest "golden parachutes" in the world
John Welch, the former Director of General Electric, received $ 417 million, who worked in this post from 1981 to 2001. The company's revenue over the years has been increased from $ 25 to $ 130 billion.
$ 320 million - the size of the "golden parachute" of the former director of Exxon Mobil Lee Raymond. From 1993 to 2005, he managed this company, as a result of which its annual profit grew from 5 to 25 billion dollars.
William McGuire, who led United Health from 1991 to 2006, received $ 86 million. The company's revenue over this time increased from $ 400 million to $ 70 billion.
From 1990 to 2007, AT&T ruled Edward Whitaker. For his services, he received $ 230 million in severance pay. As a result of his reign, the company became the largest US mobile operator.
There are many such examples in the history of America; listing them all does not make sense. Suffice it to say that the recipients of such astronomical sums did everything to ensure that these payments are truly earned.
How about us?
As you can see, some Russian former leaders have not far gone, or even outstripped the Americans in terms of the size of their "golden parachutes." All that remains to be asked is: do their merits to the companies they lead be comparable to what their American colleagues did for their enterprises?
One of the first companies in Russia to start the practice of assigning huge severance pay to its employees was RAO UES. Apparently, the incessant increase in already high electricity tariffs is the very merit for which you can get rich for several hundred thousand dollars.
Not far from the power engineers went “Russian utility systems”, where payments for services are really astronomical for ordinary consumers, which, apparently, should not only ensure welfare, but satisfy the exorbitant appetites of their employees.
How to deal with it
The theme of "golden parachutes" can be developed ad infinitum. But from all the above, we can conclude: so far Russia is not ready to adopt the experience of highly developed Western states in this direction. All the good that was invented in the West to stimulate highly paid workers and increase the welfare of society, we are turning into another plunder of public funds. Often, these funds go to people who have not only done nothing good for the enterprises or regions they manage, but have also brought them to an even more deplorable state than the one in which they were before they arrived.
Recently, there has been a tendency in the world to cancel the payment of unreasonably huge amounts to dismissed or resigned specialists. Even in such a highly developed country as Switzerland, approximately 70% of the completely non-poor population are outraged by such a large expenditure of budget money. How will they fight this phenomenon in Russia, time will tell.
