Former BT chief executive Philip Jansen has been handed his biggest ever pay and bonus package, a £3.7m bonus for the same year in which he announced plans to cut 55,000 jobs at the telco until 2030.
The pay deal for Jansen, who was nicknamed Food Bank Phil after the company set up a “community pantry” for call center staff struggling to make ends meet, was revealed in BT’s latest annual report.
The amount includes a £2.6m bonus for achieving profit and cash flow-related targets, taking Jansen’s total earnings over five years at the company to £16.8m.
Jansen joined BT in 2019 after reportedly earning £50m from payments processing firm Worldpay. Under his leadership, BT focused most of its efforts on rolling out fast fiber broadband, however the company’s share price also halved during his tenure.
He stepped down from the top job at the London-based telecom company in January this year after announcing his intention to leave in 2023. He remains employed as an adviser until the end of this month.
Thousands of staff will also leave BT after Jansen announced sweeping job cuts in May 2023, during the same financial year covered by his latest pay award.
BT said it would become a “leaner business”, reducing its workforce by up to 55,000 by 2030, more than 40% of its global employee base, including around 10,000 jobs replaced by artificial intelligence .
Jansen said at the time that a “large proportion” of the job cuts would be in the UK, where the company is headquartered.
“Philip’s pay last year was not affected by the stated plan to reduce BT’s total headcount over the next seven years,” a company spokesman said.
BT employs around 130,000 staff globally, with around 30,000 of those contracted through third parties, and has around 80,000 staff in the UK.
In 2022, the company was embroiled in a labor dispute with staff over pay, including a series of strikes, during which the Communications Workers Union (CWU) coined the nickname Food Bank Phil.
The name was linked to claims that BT set up a food bank at a call center in North Tyneside. BT said it was a “community pantry” for shift workers with no time to go to shops.
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In May last year, BT said it aimed to reduce its total workforce to around 75,000-90,000 between 2028 and 2030.
Last month BT unveiled a further £3bn of cost-cutting measures, saying it had made maximum investments in rolling out its full-fibre broadband network in the UK. The company also increased the dividend it pays to investors.
Jansen’s successor as chief executive, Allison Kirkby, has said she will continue with his cost-cutting plans, with the target of job cuts unchanged.
A spokesman said: “Philip’s basic pay remained flat between the time he joined BT in 2019 and stepping down as chief executive earlier this year – but his overall remuneration last financial year was higher, due to stronger performance results against our bonus measures, too. such as the fact that two installments of his long-term shares have been given [2024].
“A significant portion of the CEO’s remuneration is distributed through long-term incentives, where awards are linked to stock price movements over the longer term.”