In a stunning display of corporate optics, Telstra has handed its chief executive, Vicki Brady, a $6.8m pay packet for the year ending June, after docking 20% of her bonus in response to the network's nationwide outage in July.
The board, meeting on Monday, decided to cut Brady's bonus by $607,000 - but she still took home a $700,000 pay rise, as she was awarded a total of $6.1m the year before. Because nothing says 'we take responsibility' like a raise.
Telstra has faced heavy political criticism for its handling of the outage, which it has blamed on the lack of a software update on a key time-keeping system. The incident was estimated to have affected almost half of all calls and data sessions on its network before it was traced and repaired.
Brady told investors on Thursday more than 30,000 customers had asked for compensation and nearly $1m had been paid out. The company reported it was still assessing customer claims, and was paying compensation to those who were eligible.
"At this stage regulatory outcomes and any financial implications from this outage are uncertain and cannot be reliably estimated," the financial report read, which is corporate-speak for 'we have no idea what this will cost, but we're sure it won't be as much as the CEO's raise.'
Brady acknowledged the outage in comments to investors on Thursday, saying that Telstra had "let our customers down in July" and had taken full accountability.
"We have an initial understanding of the root cause of the outage and have taken steps to address that," she said. "We are completing our investigation with an external expert, and we will be transparent about those findings and the actions we take as a result."
Brady said the company was taking the disruption "extremely seriously" and was committed to giving people clear information and fixing issues as quickly as possible.
Telstra also docked 20% of the bonus for its former global networks group executive, and 10% of all other senior executives, cutting their combined pay by the equivalent of $1.3m. The company's results show senior executives were paid a combined $20.7m for the year.
Brady told reporters there was a "small impact" in customers leaving the telco following July's outage, but ultimately "no material impact" on customers leaving or new customers signing up.
"I don't take that for granted, nor do any of the team at Telstra."
Wednesday's earnings results showed profits rose to $2.4bn, from $2.3bn the prior year. It paid shareholders a dividend of 21 cents per share.
Telstra has cut costs by cutting jobs: employee numbers fell by 1,219 over the year to a total 29,334 by June.
Income from mobile phones rose $300m to $11.3bn, with customers paying an extra 7.2% on prepaid handheld plans and an extra 3.4% on postpaid handheld plans. The company increased most of its postpaid plans by $4 a month and prepaid by $5 a month in May.
Telstra sold 1m more mobile plans despite rising prices and now has 26m services in operation.
However, following multiple price increases, much of the company's growth in subscribers is being driven through prepaid and its wholesale business, which sells Telstra's mobile network under brands including Woolworths and Aldi. Brady called this the "value-conscious end of the market."
Telstra reported a drop in postpaid subscriptions directly with Telstra of 7,000 in the financial year, compared to 46,000 additions in pre-paid, and 235,000 in wholesale.
Brady said the wholesale offers give customers "a lot of choice… because we fully appreciate and understand that cost of living is a big pressure on a lot of people in the country."
The company's share price slipped from $5 to $4.875 in early trading, dragging its market value down by $1.4bn to hit $54.3bn.