BT is axing 4,000 jobs and has stripped its CEO of his bonus after what it has called a “challenging year”.
The company had an annus horribilis thanks to a £245 million charge relating to an accounting stuff up at its Italian operation and a £42 million fine from Ofcom for regulatory breaches at its Openreach arm.
All this happened as the UK public sector and international markets all suffered. The company profit slumped 19 percent. Reported revenues rose 27 percent to £24.06 billion, but this was only because it bought EE. If that was taken out of the math, sales fell 0.2 percent.
BT’s Remuneration Committee have opted not to dish out a bonus to its CEO Gavin Pattison, meaning his total pay packet has was cut from £5.28 million to £1.34 million this year. Poor Gavin.
At least he will still have a job. More than 4,000 staff in Global Services, as well as its Technology, Services and Operations divisoin and Group Functions, are being told to clean out their desks and exit the building. BT says this is to offset “market and regulatory pressures and support investment”.
Patterson admitted it had been a “challenging year”, adding that BT is taking the Ofcom and Italian issues “extremely seriously”.
“Learning from the challenges of this year will make BT a stronger outfit for the future,” he said.
