Corus director gets one year's pay-off

A DIRECTOR at Corus, the former British Steel, is getting a pay-off equivalent to one year's salary for retiring nine months before his 60th birthday.

Henk Vrins will pocket at least £465,000 when he quits his post in charge of Corus's specialities arm. Corus will keep paying into his pension fund until he turns 62, when annual payouts will be £330,000.

From age 65, he will be entitled to a pension worth 63% of salary, or £230,000. The Dutchman has been with the group for 35 years. He headed the aluminium arm of Koninklijke Hoogovens which merged with British Steel in 1999.

Corus, which racked up £91m losses in the first half and planned 1,000 lay-offs from 2003 to 2005, said: 'We make it easy for everybody to retire early and would negotiate a package for them - though on a different scale.'