[Australia] $700,000 pay rise for Telstra CEO despite nationwide outage

In Australia, Telstra has paid its chief executive, Vicki Brady, $6.8m for the year ending in June, after cutting her bonus by 20 per cent in response to its July nationwide outage, The Guardian reports.

Telstra reported financial results on August 13. Its board had met on August 10 and decided to cut Ms Brady’s bonus by $607,000. She ultimately took home a $700,000 pay rise, as she was awarded a total of $6.1m the year before.

Telstra reportedly faced political criticism for how it handled the outage, which it attributed to the lack of a software update on a key time-keeping system. The incident was estimated to have affected almost half of all calls and data sessions on its network before it was traced and repaired.

On August 13, Ms Brady told investors that more than 30,000 customers had asked for compensation and nearly $1m had been paid out. Telstra reported that it was still assessing customer claims, and was paying compensation to those who were eligible.

“At this stage regulatory outcomes and any financial implications from this outage are uncertain and cannot be reliably estimated,” the financial report read.

Ms Brady acknowledged the outage in her comments, stating that Telstra had “let our customers down in July” and had taken full accountability.

“We have an initial understanding of the root cause of the outage and have taken steps to address that,” she said. “We are completing our investigation with an external expert, and we will be transparent about those findings and the actions we take as a result.”

According to Ms Brady, the company was taking the disruption “extremely seriously” and was committed to providing clear information and fixing issues as quickly as possible.

Telstra additionally docked 20 per cent of the bonus for its former global networks group executive, and 10 per cent from all other senior executives, cutting their combined pay by the equivalent of $1.3m. 

Its results show that senior executives were paid a combined $20.7m for the year.

Addressing reporters, Ms Brady said there was a “small impact” in customers leaving the telecoms provider after July’s outage, but that ultimately there had been “no material impact” on customers leaving or new customers signing up.

“I don’t take that for granted, nor do any of the team at Telstra.”

The earnings results revealed that profits rose to $2.4bn, from $2.3bn the prior year. It paid shareholders a dividend of 21 cents per share.

Telstra reportedly cut costs by cutting jobs, with employee numbers falling by 1,219 over the year to a total of 29,334 by June.

Source: The Guardian

(Quotes via original reporting)

In Australia, Telstra has paid its chief executive, Vicki Brady, $6.8m for the year ending in June, after cutting her bonus by 20 per cent in response to its July nationwide outage, The Guardian reports.

Telstra reported financial results on August 13. Its board had met on August 10 and decided to cut Ms Brady’s bonus by $607,000. She ultimately took home a $700,000 pay rise, as she was awarded a total of $6.1m the year before.

Telstra reportedly faced political criticism for how it handled the outage, which it attributed to the lack of a software update on a key time-keeping system. The incident was estimated to have affected almost half of all calls and data sessions on its network before it was traced and repaired.

On August 13, Ms Brady told investors that more than 30,000 customers had asked for compensation and nearly $1m had been paid out. Telstra reported that it was still assessing customer claims, and was paying compensation to those who were eligible.

“At this stage regulatory outcomes and any financial implications from this outage are uncertain and cannot be reliably estimated,” the financial report read.

Ms Brady acknowledged the outage in her comments, stating that Telstra had “let our customers down in July” and had taken full accountability.

“We have an initial understanding of the root cause of the outage and have taken steps to address that,” she said. “We are completing our investigation with an external expert, and we will be transparent about those findings and the actions we take as a result.”

According to Ms Brady, the company was taking the disruption “extremely seriously” and was committed to providing clear information and fixing issues as quickly as possible.

Telstra additionally docked 20 per cent of the bonus for its former global networks group executive, and 10 per cent from all other senior executives, cutting their combined pay by the equivalent of $1.3m. 

Its results show that senior executives were paid a combined $20.7m for the year.

Addressing reporters, Ms Brady said there was a “small impact” in customers leaving the telecoms provider after July’s outage, but that ultimately there had been “no material impact” on customers leaving or new customers signing up.

“I don’t take that for granted, nor do any of the team at Telstra.”

The earnings results revealed that profits rose to $2.4bn, from $2.3bn the prior year. It paid shareholders a dividend of 21 cents per share.

Telstra reportedly cut costs by cutting jobs, with employee numbers falling by 1,219 over the year to a total of 29,334 by June.

Source: The Guardian

(Quotes via original reporting)