Shareholders in Airbus parent EADS awarded themselves the maximum allowed dividend of 0.12 euros a share on Friday but the French government refused to accept its share to avoid upsetting sacked aircraft workers.
The decision is fiercely opposed by workers who are fighting plans to shed 10,000 jobs and who contrast their fate with the treatment of investors and a huge pay-off for a sacked executive.
The dividend was adopted by a margin of 52 percent after the Franco-German board of Europe's largest aerospace group failed to agree on a recommendation, letting minority investors decide.
In an unprecedented move highlighting political concerns ahead of Sunday's French elections, the Paris government and strategic French shareholder Lagardere said they would refuse to cash in their share of the 99 million euro ($134.7 million) payout.
France, which owns 15 percent of EADS, is anxious to prevent a repeat of protests over Airbus job cuts which have punctuated the country's presidential campaign. German core shareholder DaimlerChrysler voted for the dividend.
"This decision could put oil on the fire and we really don't need that at the moment now that the social context is already explosive. I can therefore only express my indignation," Jean-Francois Knepper, main representative of Airbus' biggest trades union Force Ouvriere, told Reuters.
Airbus is slashing costs to recover from costly delays to its A380 superjumbo. Workers in western France continued a week of wildcat strikes to voice anger over near-zero bonus payments.
The power vacuum transformed Friday's annual shareholder meeting into an unusual piece of theatre, with real suspense over whether shareholders would back a dividend.
The decision came after EADS bosses fielded over four hours of questions on the A380 crisis and chronic internal divisions. Co-chief executive Tom Enders acknowledged Airbus had been complacent until its new management "shook things up" last year.
As small shareholders basked in the unusual attention they received on their voting intentions, professional investors weighed in with a series of attacks on the board's inconclusive dividend talks and its complex Franco-German power structure.
"On a plane do we have two captains? No. We're not refighting the last world wars here," said Cyril Farquhason, a retired airline pilot who cycled to the meeting.
"By the way I have never heard the word 'sorry' from you," he added to applause from investors. They included Dutch investor group VEB, which has a history of forcing Dutch firms to pay attention to smaller investors. The VEB won a key victory on Thursday against Dutch bank ABN Amro, throwing a major banking deal into doubt.
"It's a question of whether you are running a political party or a real business," said VEB representative Errol Keyner, attacking rules which guarantee French and German control.
"Nobody cares where people come from. It's not the United Nations. You should not be organised like a dinosaur. Why don't you show an example and starting cutting jobs from the top?"
Several shareholders criticised an 8.5 million euro pay-off for former Airbus chief and EADS co-chief executive Noel Forgeard who was sacked over the A380 crisis last year.
New German co-chairman Ruediger Grube defended the pay-off, saying it was normal under Forgeard's contract. "What kind of genius negotiated a contract like that?" Keyner retorted.
Co-chairman Arnaud Lagardere was heckled as he cleared top EADS officials of liability for the A380 crisis.
The company unveiling of a series of internal production and co-ordination problems sent its shares spiralling down and led to a management shake-up last summer.
Forgeard and other top officials face criticism over the sale of shares weeks before the A380 delays were unveiled, leading to what EADS co-chief exective Tom Enders on Friday described as a period of "shattered market confidence".
EADS is embroiled in regulatory and police probes over the share dealings and market communications but denies wrongdoing.
VEB's Keyner pressed the chairmen to say how they could clear individuals of liability before investigations were over.
EADS was set up in 2000 as a merger of French, German and Spanish aerospace assets symbolising European integration. Control is shared between the Paris government and Lagardere on the French side and German car firm DaimlerChrysler, but splits are rife.
EADS confirmed it would not immediately opt for a share issue to raise cash but is studying novel bond financing. Shareholders granted approval to issue shares if necessary.