Codelco Responds to Severance Pay Reports

Chile's state copper corporation Codelco issued a statement claiming certain newspaper reports on compensation paid to leading executives were inaccurate. The company said the reports concerned failed to mention the conclusion reached by a State Defense Council (CDE) inquiry that all severance payments were legal. Codelco also denied reports it had not provided a parliamentary investigation with requested information regarding executives' salaries, and said newspapers and others had confused gross and net salaries in reporting that amounts in the CDE document did not correspond to declared salary payments. The corporation added that according to a study conducted by the Seminarium organization, its executives receive 46% of what equivalent managers in the private sector would expect to earn.