Investors challenge BT pay plans

BT is bringing some call centre jobs back to the UK

Shareholders in BT have used the telecoms firm's annual meeting to protest over pay to senior management.

About 11% of investors voted against plans that could see large bonuses for chief executive Ian Livingston.

There was also criticism over a £1.6m pay-off to the former head of BT's Global Services division.

In May, BT reported an annual loss of £134m, after taking a £1.6bn charge at the Global Services unit. The firm is now cutting thousands of jobs.

It is also asking some staff to go part-time or take a year off on 25% pay, and there has also been a group-wide pay freeze this year, as the firm tries to cut costs.

However, in a concession to staff, BT said it planned to award 50,000 call centre and engineering staff a one-off payment of £400 in two instalments.

BT also confirmed it would bring half of its customer-facing call centre roles in India back to the UK this year - a step aimed at preventing further UK job cuts.

Under plans put forward by BT, Mr Livingston could potentially pick up a package that includes an annual bonus of up to double his £802,000 salary, a deferred bonus worth the same amount and incentive shares worth three times his basic pay.

The telecoms firm is not the first to suffer large-scale objections from investors - with shareholder groups the ABI and PIRC raising concerns over potentially lucrative executive pay packages at other firms, including Royal Dutch Shell, Cable & Wireless and British Land.