Finance

Boeing’s fired CEO got his $62 million payout confirmed the same day 2,800 people in the 737 Max supply chain were laid off

  • Dennis Muilenburg, the recently-ousted CEO of Boeing, is leaving with a $62 million payout, the company said Friday.
  • The substantial award comes despite being fired for poor handling of the fatal crashes, aftermath, and continued suspension from service of the 737 Max.
  • Also on Friday other workers lost their jobs because of the 737 Max: 2,800 employees of Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems.
  • Spirit said the workers had to go because there was no work for them in light of Boeing suspending production of the 737 Max while it is grounded.
  • Unlike Muilenburg, they did not get large exit packages, and will instead receive 60 days’ pay.
  • Visit Business Insider’s home page for more stories.

The recently-fired CEO of Boeing is leaving the company with a package worth $62 million, the company said Friday — just hours after 2,800 workers lost their jobs over the 737 Max disaster.

Payout details for Dennis Muilenburg, who was ousted from Boeing in late December, were made public in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Muilenburg lost his job over Boeing’s disastrous handling of two fatal crashes by the 737 Max in which 346 people died.

The jet was grounded ten months ago, in March 2019. It has no firm date to return to service and Boeing has stopped building new ones.

Boeing 737 Max fuselages

Rows of part-built Boeing 737 Max planes at the Wichita, Kansas, facility of Spirit AeroSystems.
Reuters

On his departure, Boeing stripped him of his bonus, any severance pay, and other incentives worth nearly $15 million.

However, that still left him with a parting package of $62 million made up of Boeing stock, pension payments, and other deferred contributions.

Meanwhile, rank-and-file aviation workers in Boeing’s supply chain were cut lose without anything like that kind of compensation.

Earlier on Friday, Spirit AeroSystems, a Kansas-based manufacturer, which gets more than half its revenue from the 737 Max, announced layoffs for 2,800 workers at its Wichita facility.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg Congress House Transportation October 2019

Muilenburg responds to intense questioning from the US House Transportation Committee at a hearing on the Boeing 737 Max in October 2019.
Getty Images

When Boeing froze the 737 Max production line, it promised not to lay off any of its own staff.

But the loss of work proved devastating for suppliers like Spirit, which said in a statement that the grounding and production freeze left them little.

“Spirit is taking this action because of the 737 MAX production suspension and ongoing uncertainty regarding the timing of when production will resume and the level of production when it does resume,” the statement said.

Spirit said it plans to lay off an unspecified number of workers at two plants in Oklahoma, and may also have to shed more workers at its Wichita base if 737 Max production does not recommence.

The laid off are due to receive 60 days’ pay, Spirit said.

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