BT to slash 4000 jobs
Boss pay cut as profits dive
A SLUMP in profits has led to BT axing 4000 jobs after what their boss called a “challenging” year.
The cull includes middle managers and admin staff in the Global Services division which does work for other big companies.
Other jobs will be cut at company headquarters.
BT also lowered future dividend growth in a blow to thousands of small shareholders.
The telecoms giants have been rocked by an accounting scandal in their Italian arm, loss of government work and a £342million bill for deliberately denying compensation to hundreds of firms.
If that weren’t bad enough, regulators Ofcom have ordered them to turn Openreach, a division which accounted for a third of their profits last year, into a separate legal entity.
Chief executive Gavin Patterson has paid the price for the ropey results after his pay and perks package for last year was slashed from £5.3m to £1.3m.
The company are also clawing back nearly £340,000 in past bonuses Patterson was promised. He said: “You have to lead by example.”
He added: “This has been a challenging year for BT but the company is in a good position.”
Other staff will still get a bonus, but less than the previous year. Annual profits at BT fell by 19 per cent to £2.35bn, although sales jumped 27 per cent to £24bn.
On the upside for BT, sales at their mobile giant EE leapt 50 per cent to £1.2bn in the three months to April, with profits up 83 pe cent.
BT’s share price fell 4.5 per cent yesterday – wiping £1.4bn off their stock market value. Gavin Patterson up 1.4 at 7386.6 GlaxoSmithKline Halfords Hays HSBC Imperial Brands International Airlines Grp ITV Kingfisher Land Securities Legal & General Lloyds Marks & Spencer Morrison National Grid Next Old Mutual Pearson Prudential Reckitt Benckiser RELX Rentokil Initial 1627.5 362.6 173.7 678.0 3687.5 598.0 189.0 345.1 1129.0 254.7 69.7 377.0 242.1 1032.5 4302.0 195.6 709.0 1760.5 7301.0 1604.0 255.5 Oil +21.5 -11.8 -0.9 +7.1 -12.5 -10.5 -7.2 -2.9 +1.0 -0.9 -0.2 -6.1 -0.2 -7.0 -99.0 +1.0 -12.0 -5.5 +29.0 -1.0 +0.5 = $51.01 Rio Tinto Rolls-Royce Royal Mail RSA RBS J Sainsbury SSE Severn Trent Serco Sports Direct Shell Sky Smith & Nephew Smith WH Stagecoach Standard Chartered Standard Life TalkTalk Taylor Wimpey Tesco Thomas Cook Unilever 2990.0 871.5 423.0 615.0 260.8 265.1 1449.0 2425.0 117.9 303.5 2195.0 997.0 1309.0 1744.0 214.4 752.5 385.1 163.9 198.6 180.4 95.9 4085.5 +12.0 -3.0 +2.6 -2.0 -2.3 0.0 -15.0 -18.0 +0.8 -4.0 +26.5 +0.5 +5.0 -49.0 -2.0 +18.1 -0.4 -4.9 -1.9 -3.0 -0.5 +6.5 United Utilities Vodafone Wolseley Trinity Mirror 1022.0 206.3 4989.0 115.0 -7.0 -0.3 -36.0 -2.6