BT executive to land £1m bonus

The telecoms giant BT is likely to come under fire from unions this week when it reveals an expected £1m bonus for its chief executive, Ian Livingston.

His bonus, which will be up sharply from the £343,000 he received last year and is in addition to his salary of £808,000, will be unveiled in BT's annual report, to be published on Wednesday. Gavin Patterson, the head of its retail division, and Tony Chanmugam, the group finance director, are set to share a bonus of £800,000.

On the same day, the Communication Workers Union, which represents about 60,000 of BT's non-managerial staff, is set to unveil plans to ballot members on a strike, after turning down a 2 per cent pay rise with a guaranteed bonus of £250. The union has reportedly said that the bonuses for BT's executives "could add to the anger that a lot of staff are feeling towards the company". BT has slashed 35,000 jobs from its workforce of 112,000 over the past two years.