A record 14 company executives received golden handshakes of over ?1 million in the latest accounting year, a survey in Labour Research reveals. This is by far the highest number of seven-figure golden goodbyes traced in regular surveys conducted by the magazine.

The investigation, which found 75 directors receiving leaving presents of ?100,000 or more, shows that companies are paying little heed to calls for restraint on directors' rewards.

Top of the list was the ?9.1 million retirement gift paid to Klaus Esser, who headed German telecoms group Mannesmann before it was taken over by the UK group Vodafone. The pay-off is being investigated by the Dusseldorf state prosecutor.

Fourteen of the companies in the list of ?100,000-plus golden handshakes made more than one large pay-off in the year. For example, energy group BG paid out three six-figure executive golden goodbyes in the period covered following the demerger of its Lattice Group.

Labour Research found that companies do not appear to be abiding by the code of best practice proposed by the Greenbury committee in the mid-1990s. This recommended that the "broad aim" of the provision of golden handshakes to directors "should be to avoid rewarding poor performance".

The issue was brought into sharp focus last September when telecoms company Marconi was due to pay chief executive Lord Simpson a golden handshake of ?1 million plus a pension payment of ?2.5 million after bringing the company to the brink of collapse. Protest by City investors cut the cash payment down to ?300,000.

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Director	Company	Golden handshake ?
Klaus Esser	Vodafone Group	9,153,000
Jim Mueller	Invensys	3,187,739
David Allvey	Barclays	1,615,000
Trevor Hilliard	Alliance & Leicester	1,488,000
Peter George	Hilton Group	1,373,000
John Hoerner	Arcadia	1,332,000
Jeremy Strachan	Glaxo Wellcome	1,265,000
Dino Adriano	J Sainsbury	1,237,000
James Cochrane	Glaxo Wellcome	1,198,000
John Parcell	Reuters	1,189,000
Arun Sarin	Vodafone Group	1,119,000
Ian Johnston	Cadbury Schweppes	1,110,000
Andrew Bonfield	SmithKline Beecham	1,052,000
James Moore	International Power	1,002,674
Peter Ward	CGNU	879,000
Harold Collinson	Airtours	857,000
Bill Bogie	Celltech	851,900
Sir Peter Bonfield	BT	820,000
Linus WL Cheung	Cable & Wireless	808,446
David Varney	BG Group	805,966
John Cole	Hays	800,000
Richard Maney	Arcadia	724,000
Guy McCracken	Marks & Spencer	707,000
George McCarthy	Allied Domecq	698,645
Keith Cameron	Arcadia	676,000
Tony Illsley	Telewest Communications	669,000
John Allwood	Trinity Mirror	629,000
Gordon Wotherspoon	Safeway	625,000
Roger Eastoe	Trinity Mirror	624,000
Gary Watts	Celltech	612,799
Peter Salsbury	Marks & Spencer	609,000
Philip Hampton	BG Group	591,966
Onno Laman Trip	Reed Elsevier	581,342
Graham Brown	National Power	569,783
Bill Cockburn	BT	565,000
Leonard Davis	Rio Tinto	533,948
Stephen Brandon	BG Group	475,966
Rob Gluskin	Rexam	475,000
Peter Young	RMC	462,000
Michael Green	Standard Chartered	461,000
Richard Taylor	Infast Group	455,000
Bryan Sanderson	BP	450,000
Gerald Corbett	Railtrack	444,000
Colin Day	Aegis	422,000
Peter Newey	Hornby	385,632
David Marsland	Davis Group	371,000
Michael de Kare-Silver	GUS	346,000
Clara Freeman	Marks & Spencer	337,000
Mike Gordon	Spring Group	311,000
Robert Jackson	Celltech	307,129
Victoria Hull	Telewest Communications	302,000
Nigel Donaldson	United Business Media	286,130
Les Cullen	Prudential	276,000
Kevin Bond	Kelda	264,000
Andrew Bould	Thistle Hotels	264,000
Jonson Cox	Kelda	215,000
Michael Williamson	MFI Furniture Group	207,000
TA Pyne	Friends Provident	200,000
Stuart Russell	David S Smith	177,000
Russell Ford	Iceland	175,000
Michael Thompson	Infast Group	170,000
Tony Tillin	United Business Media	166,575
Jeremy Lewis	Eidos	160,000
Richard Makowski	Mentmore Abbey	160,000
PD Jones	Friends Provident	157,000
Rober Morgan	Hays	154,000
Rod Muttram	Railtrack	150,000
Ian McMillan	Scottish & Southern Energy	144,000
Declan Salter	Jarvis Porter	141,000
Ian Bond	Howard Holdings	136,958
Michael Masters	Trinity Mirror	116,000
Tim Nabbs	Hornby	112,786
Hugh Donaldson	Jarvis Porter	108,000
Hartley Sutcliffe	Thistle Hotels	103,000
Jim Hart	Scottish & Southern Energy	100,000

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Notes to editors

1 The survey covers golden handshakes reported in the annual reports of companies with financial years ending at or after September 2000. It excludes the Marconi pay-offs, which will be published this year.

2 A list of all directors receiving golden handshakes of ?100,000 or more and further details are published in the January 2002 issue of Labour Research.

3 Labour Research is published by the Labour Research Department, an independent trade union and labour movement organisation founded 90 years ago. More than 1,800 trade union organisations, including 55 national unions representing 99% of total TUC membership, are affiliated.

4 For further information contact Neal Moister on 0207 902 9818.