Investors challenge BT pay plans

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.

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