Reports of executive bonuses inflame BT pay dispute

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) will decide on Wednesday whether to ballot 60,000 of its members at BT for industrial action after rejecting a 2 per cent pay offer.

On the same day BT will publish its annual report, which is widely expected to show increased bonuses for top staff including chief executive Ian Livingston.

The group recently announced 1 billion in profits for the year to the end of March, which came as a marked improvement on the 134 million loss a year earlier.

Mr Livingston is entitled to a bonus of up to 1.6 million - two times his 800,000 salary - if all financial targets are met. The group's boss saw his pay frozen in 2009, although he received a 343,000 shares bonus last year despite the heavy losses.

Andy Kerr, the CWU's deputy general secretary, said: "This is blatant double standards. Staff at BT have borne the brunt of the cost savings through redundancies, changes to pensions and a pay freeze.

"All we're asking for staff is a fair share of the profits as a pay rise. If it's good enough for the managers it should be good enough for the staff."

The union will decide whether to hold a ballot on Wednesday at its annual conference in Bournemouth, which opened yesterday.

Any national walkout would be the first since 1985, a year after BT was privatised.