02.00 CESTTelstra CEO receives $700k pay rise even after 20% bonus cut over nationwide outageLuca IttimaniTelstra has paid its chief executive, Vicki Brady, $6.8m for the year ending in June, after docking 20% of her bonus in response to the network’s nationwide outage last month.The company reported financial results today and said its board decided to cut Brady’s bonus by $607,000 when it met on Monday. Brady took home $6.1m the year before, so she still got a $700,000 pay rise.The company has faced heavy political criticism for its handling of the outage, which it has blamed on the lack of a software update on a key time-keeping system.Telstra also docked 20% of the bonus for its former networks group executive and 10% of all other senior executives, the equivalent of $1.3m unpaid. The company’s results show senior executives were paid $20.7m combined for the year.The company reported its profits rose to $2.4bn, from $2.3bn the prior year. It paid shareholders a dividend of 21 cents per share over the year.The strong result was helped by job cuts, with employee numbers falling 1,219 to total 29,334 by June. It was also helped by steep price rises: income from mobile phones rose $300m, with customers paying an extra 7.2% on prepaid handheld plans and an extra 3.4% on postpaid handheld plans. Despite the rising prices, Telstra sold 1m more mobile plans, and now has 26m services in operation.ShareUpdated at 02.44 CEST
