BT faces fat-cat pay storm

LOBBY group Pirc wants to stoke a shareholder rebellion at BT's annual meeting next month. It is telling members to oppose the telecoms giant's pay report in protest at generous incentive schemes it considers 'insufficiently challenging'.

Despite freezing basic pay for a third year, Pirc says BT's executive packages are 'potentially excessive'.

It calculates that chief executive Ben Verwaayen could get shares and bonuses worth three times his £700,000 salary this year.

Pirc reserves special criticism for the 'retention share plan', which grants free shares without performance targets attached.

Verwaayen can cash in shares worth £1.6m under this scheme from January.

The Dutchman's pay and pension package was worth £2.43m last year, less than the £3.05m a year earlier, after his deferred shares award halved to £429,500.

BT says its pay plan 'emphasises the importance of personal and corporate performance in determining rewards'.

But it does not divulge target details because they are 'commercially confidential'.