‘Shouldn’t have happened’: Telstra faces shareholder grilling over July outage accountability and pay cuts
Telstra’s board is defending its response to July’s nationwide outage as shareholders weigh if a $607,000 cut to chief executive Vicki Brady’s bonus is enough to hold executives to account.
Telstra’s board is defending its response to July’s nationwide outage as shareholders weigh if a $607,000 cut to chief executive Vicki Brady’s bonus is enough to hold executives to account.
The outage crippled mobile, payment and rail services and blocked more than 600 calls to Triple Zero. Telstra shares have fallen 5.5 per cent since July 8.
The company has since reported a $2.4 billion annual profit, up 2.7 per cent on the previous year.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Ms Brady’s bonus was cut by $607,000, but her total pay last financial year still rose to $6.8 million from $6.2m. Nine other executives lost a combined $1.3m in bonus payments.
“We fell short of what people rightly expect from us, and it should not have happened,” chair Craig Dunn told shareholders.
The Australian Shareholders Association backed Ms Brady’s reduced pay, saying Telstra had delivered “a solid financial result”.
Proxy adviser ISS also recommends shareholders approve the remuneration report, while warning the board may need to revisit pay in this financial year after considering the outage review — an issue being voted on by shareholders.
More to come....
