Shell may face grilling this week over top boss Ben Van Beurden's pay

Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden has come under scrutiny over his €8.26m (£7.1m) pay ahead of the FTSE-100 giant’s annual general meeting (AGM) tomorrow.

Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (Pirc) have advised shareholders to vote against the oil and gas giant’s remuneration policy.

Pirc branded van Beurden’s total pay, which was 453 per cent of his salary, “excessive”.

Shell revealed in March that van Beurden’s was paid €8.263m last year, up from €5.135m due to deferred bonuses and long-term incentive plans (LTIPs).

Investor advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services said the oil giant’s pay policy is “not without concerns for shareholders”. However, it did not urge investors to vote against the board at the AGM.

Last week, investors in Shell’s rival BP approved an $11.6m (£9m) pay package for chief executive Bob Dudley after the oil major cut his pay in response to a shareholder revolt last year. Shareholders at BP’s AGM also approved a new remuneration policy that will decrease performance incentives by millions.

Dudley’s pay was decreased by 40 per cent after nearly 60 per cent of shareholders voted against a pay rise in 2015 amid the company’s reports of record losses.

Meanwhile, a report from pay tracker Proxy Insight found that many companies have taken “on board the much publicised concerns of their investors regarding pay”.

However there have been three withdrawn pay proposals in the FTSE 350 and a further 25 resolutions that did not receive 80 per cent support.

Last week, Balfour Beatty suffered some shareholder backlash with 22.82 per cent of voting shareholders rejecting its remuneration policy at its AGM.

The construction company’s remuneration committee proposed increasing its CEO Leo Quinn’s annual bonus from 120 per cent of his salary to 150 per cent, taking his pay to £3.76m, a 13 per cent increase on the previous year.

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