Potella: My pay is a private issue

Chief Executive Officer of National Flour Mills (NFM) Michael Potella yesterday said his current pay package was “a private issue,” but in light of recent reports concerning the salary packages of his contemporaries in other organisations, “perhaps my compensation is not in line with market rates”.

Potella made this statement when questioned as to whether or not he thought he deserved to be paid along the same lines as his counterparts, when he spoke to Newsday yesterday. He confirmed that he had indeed met with approximately half of the managers at NFM, who all expressed a “general sense of dissatisfaction” with their current salary packages. He revealed that he had met twice within the last three months with these persons but would not disclose what came out of the meetings. It was reported that approximately 24 executive and middle managers have not had a pay increase over the last three years, in addition to having experienced a salary reduction last October, under the new board headed by Christine Sahadeo.

Potella would only say that following deliberations by the board, they decided not to award any increases in executive pay packages. However, he attested to the fact that these persons were qualified and had proven themselves, but that they felt their efforts were not being appreciated. Asked as to whether or not he could offer an explanation as to why he was paid substantially less than persons in other organisations who held the same positions, Potella replied “the powers that be, that is the value they place on my position,” and laughingly offered that they “probably don’t value the duties and responsibilities of the CEO”. However, he also said he was “happy to be running an organisation that has enjoyed some form of success”.