EasyJet (Other OTC: EJETF.PK - news) founder Sir Stelios has suffered a setback after the budget airline's shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of a multi-millon pound pay package for its executives.
Sir Stelios was opposed to the deal, which means that 10 easyJet executives will receive shares worth around £8m in three years' time, provided they meet their business targets.
Some 97% of shareholders voted in favour of the package.
Sir Stelios has been in a row with the board over executive pay and the board's strategy.
He said that "executive rewards must be made appropriate to performance".
He voted against the re-election of four directors including the chairman Sir Michael Rake and accused the board of "having bought shareholder votes".
But ahead of the vote he said that the board and senior management "will face the consequences if there is no delivery".
He previously said: "We must take a stand against directors who seem to regard our company as their personal piggybank to be dipped into at will".
Meanwhile, Sir Michael has threatened legal action against the low-cost airline's founder and criticised him for refusing to meet the board.
In a statement issued during the meeting Sir Michael said: "Stelios has instigated a series of increasingly personalised attacks on the board and individual members involving a number of inaccurate and misleading statements.
"We have advised Stelios that we have reserved our rights to take legal action for potential defamation and repeated breaches of the brand agreement."
Sir Stelios quit the airline's board in 2010 after a row over strategy, and since then he has been critical of many of the airline's plans.
Standard Life (Other OTC: SLFPF.PK - news) , easyJet's second biggest institutional investor, gave public backing to the board last week, along with M&G and Sanderson, which hold 17.5% of easyJet's shares.
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