The head of Glasgow engineering company Weir Group, which recently unveiled plans to axe hundreds of jobs at its Cathcart pumps division, has seen his pay package double to £1m in just two years.

Chief executive Mark Selway banked £999,737 in 2006, £94,000 more than in the previous year and more than twice the £484,000 he was paid in 2004. In addition to a basic wage of £531,940, Selway, 47, received a bonus of £448,800 and other benefits worth £18,997.

Company secretary Alan Mitchelson, 57, was paid just under £500,000 - £60,000 more than in 2005 and almost double his total remuneration two years previously. Mitchelson's package comprised basic pay of £283,350, a bonus of £200,250 and other benefits worth £14,615.

Keith Cochrane, meanwhile, the 42-year-old former chief executive of transport giant Stagecoach, was paid £321,050 for six months work following his appointment as group finance director in July 2006. This included a bonus of £129,375.

All three executive directors could earn far more this year following a hike in their potential bonuses. Selway's maximum bonus has been increased from 85% of salary to 125%, putting him on course to pocket nearly £700,000 in annual bonus alone from 2007.

For Cochrane and Mitchelson, the maximum potential bonus has risen from 75% of salary last year to 100%.

In the annual report, Weir said the maximum bonus rises had been sanctioned by the remuneration committee, chaired by former Castrol chief executive Mike Dear-den, "to bring (the trio) into line with current industry benchmarks".

The executives are also sitting on hefty potential share gains awarded under a long-term incentive plan. Together the shares are notionally worth £3.7m, of which Selway has £2.4m worth at current prices. These awards should begin vesting later this year subject to certain performance criteria.

Weir's non-executive directors shared £363,258 in 2006, 12% more than the previous year, and will get more in 2007. Chairman Sir Robert Smith, who received £147,000 last year, had his remuneration increased to £175,000 on April 1. The basic fee for non-executives rose from £35,000 to £40,000 on the same date.

The chairs of the remuneration and audit committees, meanwhile, were handed a 50% increase in their additional fee for undertaking those roles, from £5000 to £7500 annually.

Soaring boardroom pay at Weir is unlikely to generate much dissent in the City, after the company last month unveiled record underlying pre-tax profits of £87.1m.

The rises are unlikely to be greeted so gladly by 450 skilled staff at Cathcart, however, who were recently given notice of their impending redundancy with the planned sale of Weir's pumps division to rival Sulzer. The sale collapsed, but the employees' future still looks bleak, with Weir Group now apparently intent on reducing Weir Pumps to a small spares manufacturing operation.

Scottish Enterprise has been in contact with engineering entrepreneur Jim McColl as he weighs up whether he can do a deal to help preserve the historic pumps business.

Commenting, Kenny Jordan, regional officer at trade union Amicus, said: "There will certainly be an angry feeling among our members when they hear of these increases, which have come on the back of better profits.

"Our members' reward for those profits has been a below-average pay offer and uncertainty about the future of their jobs after 2008."

Jordan met local management at Weir Pumps yesterday and was told that they have put the case for retaining a pumps manufacturing facility in Glasgow to Selway and the rest of Weir's board. There was no word on the possibility of a deal with McColl.