In Portugal, a €500.000 severance package received from Tap Air Portugal's Treasury Secretary Alexandra Margarida Vieira Reis has caused an uproar. Although the former head of the airline resigned herself, she is said to have received a one-time payment of this amount. The Ministry of Finance is now also concerned with this.

This requires the board of directors of the airline, which received state aid during the corona pandemic, among other things, to clarify how this severance payment came about. In particular, the height, which causes a lack of understanding in Portugal, should be explained. The now state secretary only joined Tap Air Portugal in September 2017 and was then briefly managing director of the airline, which is majority-owned by the state.

In the course of her change to the position of State Secretary, she resigned from the airline. Despite resigning, she is said to have an agreement with the board of directors, which is said to have led to the payment of a severance payment in the amount mentioned. Her new employer, the Portuguese Ministry of Finance, now wants to take a closer look at this, because after all, Tap Air Portugal was saved from collapsing with large sums of money.

President intervenes

Public broadcaster quotes the ministry as saying: “The Minister of Finance and the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing today issued an order requesting information from the Board of Directors of Transportes Aéreos Portugueses, SA on the legal framework of the agreement, which was signed in the in connection with the termination of the activity of Alexandra Margarida Vieira Reis as a member of the relevant Board of Directors, including the calculation of the amount of compensation granted”. The reason for the request for information is that it is believed that the same rules apply to Tap Air Portugal as to other publicly owned companies.

The timing of the payment of the severance payment is also likely to be politically piquant, as the former managing director resigned her mandate independently around two years ago and only formally left Tap in February 2022 to become State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. Bonus payments, which also include high severance payments, are actually excluded due to state aid. However, it is sometimes presented in such a way that the claim would have arisen earlier.

The matter is being treated so piquantly in Portugal that even President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has spoken out. He argues protectively that Alexandra Margarida Vieira Reis only received a third of her entitlement, but at the same time admits that for many Portuguese the amount of the severance payment is difficult to understand. The member of government concerned himself believes that she would have been asked to leave Tap Air Portugal and that it would therefore not have been a genuine resignation.