Telecom: Reynolds' pay is "the bargain $5 million"
Telecom chief executive Paul Reynolds told media and analysts on Friday that he stood firmly behind his company's new contractor, saying "We'll continue to give Visionstream whatever support they need to explain the very real benefits of the new contracts."
The EPMU today hit back at Dr Reynolds, saying the chief executive's $5 million+ FY09 compensation, detailed in its annual report posted on the Companies Office website on Friday, revealed "a shameless culture of greed".
Ramping up the rhetoric, the union said, “Telecom has used its monopoly to gouge money from Kiwis while letting the network rot away. Now its using its monopoly position to try to bully their skilled workforce into dire contracts despite the massive risk this poses to some of New Zealand’s most important infrastructure."
"The bargain $5 million"
Telecom chairman Wayne Boyd released a counter-statement this afternoon, saying Dr Reynolds had overseen unprecidented investment in New Zealand's landline and mobile infrastructure, with Telecom's capital expenditure hitting $1.3 billion or around $3 million a day during the year to June 30.
"Telecom has met its financial targets in the past financial year and made significant progress in other areas, too, as our large-scale investment programmes are rolled out," said Mr Boyd.
“Under Paul Reynolds’ leadership, our executive team has delivered on the demanding objectives set by the Board over the past year: leading Telecom’s 8,500 people in New Zealand and Australia to deliver one of the largest and most complex transformation programmes ever undertaken by a telecommunications company anywhere in the world."
XT has exceeded expectations, progress on Chorus' roadside cabinet project was ahead of schedule, and customer satisfaction metrics were up.
Separately, a Telecom spokeman referred to Dr Reynold's compensation as "The bargain $5 million".
Mr Reynolds’ compensation eclipses Telecom’s previous record, held by his predecessor Theresa Gattung with $5.4 million (including a $1.8 million exit package).
Telecom recently reported a 43.9% in annual net profit after tax to $398 million on revenue that fell 2% to 2% to $5.587 billion.
Excluding one-of items, the result was in line with analysts’ expectations - although those expectations were informed, in part, by Telecom’s investor day briefing in Sydney on May 28.
The company is predicting another profit dip this year ahead of a pick-up in FY11.
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Comments and questions16
Sorry Mike - this is the funniest thing I have heard in years. The Telecom management score highly in duping a gullible board into paying them ludicrous salaries but that's about the only thing at which they excel. Paul Reynolds is here to top up his pension fund before he retires back to Scotland. Good luck to him - but let's try to keep a sense of proportion.
they've spent that much to turn telecom into a backyard operation.
they've spent megabucks on high-cost,high-return plug ins like adsl equipment and totally ignored the skill shortage with resulting slipshod practises that has brought their ancient copper network to the brink of ruin.are they hedging for a government bailout in terms of paying for an enormously expensive fibre to the home system?a few years of poorly trained operators on piece rates and the above scenario will be a fait accompli.
Dr Reynolds had overseen unprecidented investment in New Zealand's landline and mobile infrastructure????
Well maybe they have spent some money on mobile because that is where the easy money is.
The landline network has not had any significant money spent on it in the last 20 years and it is falling apart. There is no plan to replace our ageing cables and exchanges until they actually fail. Telecom would rather pay Reynolds $ 5,000,000 than to repair its failing network or clean and repaint its ugly deteriorating buildings that are a blot on the landscape of every town and city in New Zealand. Is it any wonder that Telecom is one of the least trusted brands in NZ.
If the $5,000,000, was spent on supporting the technicians who actually do the work then we could make a huge difference to Telecoms performance and we would all be happy. Nah just give it all to the fat prick at the top and screw the workers. He's got his money so what does he care about ordinary New Zealanders?
Whats it like to fly to Sydney first class just for a coffee?Oh and back home again that night!!!!
Reynolds can rightly be accused of sheer greed and hubris for extracting such a ridiculous salary in total from Telecom. The big boys don't get any more sensitive to the notion of being answerable to the community for their inflated sense of self-worth at a time when he intends to load the dice against tTlecom's real workers.
I've never been left wing, but the greedy corporate right deserve all the contempt in which they're held. They're disgusting.
What greedy pigs they all are!
Look how they have screwed their workforce. They have eroded away at the engineers conditions for years,also the call center staff (now in Manila) dispatchers and on and on.
The engineers are fighting for their jobs in Auckland and North land and other engineers,dispatchers and admin in other parts of NZ have been given redundancy notices over 154 of them.
The network these greedy pigs have been feasting off is in a state,held together with a sticking plaster. The once pristine Telephone Exchanges are filthy holes,another cost cutting measure. Cost cutting nothing to do with the current economic climate. This has been going on for years so these greedy pigs can get their million dollar plus bonuses and salaries.
Once they have taken and stripped the bones clean no doubt they will move on.
The engineers and other once loyal staff have had enough.
The greedy pigs bonuses might be down next year, the spot light is finally on them for what they have done to a once well maintained network and loyal workforce.
obscene amount of money!!!! can visionstream fulfil their contract with inexperienced immigrants that have been forced to sign and trainees who dont know any better and hit and run trico .hmmmmmm
It's a lotta money - $5 million. Don't think anyone is worth that much. For some reason though I was more annoyed at the sloppy spelling in this story - 'unprecidented' and 'one-of'. Come on, Get it together.
Yes the amount is large... but who really cares. Why as NZ'ders are we hung up on ppl that succeed. Get on with making your own
Ge over it people - take a look at what top talent is earning in the international marketplace and realise what a good deal Telecom are getting. I wonder how many of the whiners above could last a day doing what Paul does, week in, week out.
I dont understand the unions argument, sounds likeTelecom had several companies supporting its network for years. Now after replacing those companies the unions claim the network is rubbish and Telecom needs to re hire all the people who built/maintained the rubbish network?.
Why would they do that for more of the same?
If I had maintenance guys working for me and they did a rubbish job for years I would replace them too.
If they then came out and said the work they had done for years was rubbish, what incentive would there be to re hire them?
Also these engineers dont work for Telecom do they?, where is the talk about the maintenance companies responsibilities.
I have been in NZ for a few years now and it seems people here love to whine and bitch about hard done by they are.
If all these hard done by engineers or the companies they work for had done a great job, then they would probably still have the same jobs and be doing the same things in the same way.
Looks like what ever they were doing it didnt work and things needed to change.
I assume the Telecom board is paid to make changes to improve things?, sounds like they are doing this.
I dont understand, should read "I don`t understand anything". This worn out network stems back to the old P & T days and probably further back. Senior Engineers and Designers not having the foresight to see past their noses. While other countries were laying a pit and pipe network we were direct burying everything "cheap" being word for the day. Persevering with old lead sheathed cables, some laid as far back as the 1920`s. Those techs with 25 yrs experience are needed to maintain this geriatric network. Alot of these cables need to be approached differently depending on the era they were laid. This is were the problem starts. Fusing 21st Century digital technology with a network only designed for Voice transmission. Telecom has only started replacing cables in the past few years as long as they meet certain criteria i.e age, fault history, "cost". and even then they are still direct burying cables "Cheap"!
The "Fibre to node" project still uses the old lead cable network from the Exchange to your home. All it does is shift the adsl ports closer to your premises via fibre cable to roadside cabinets. Anyting past this point is still the same old..You might notice some speed increase in broadband, but not as much as "Fibre to Home'. which will be the case in Australia.
All techs know what needs to be done,replace everything, but it is out of our hands. I`ll go to work tomorrow and i`ll de given a job to repair a lead sheathed cable thats gone faulty. ( acids in the soil slowly eat away at the sheathing ). Thats what Telecom wants... So to the previous tosser. Stick to reading comics.
go to northpower.co and see the fibre system they are rolling out.
Its not about immigrants or Trico, why are you making any comments without a understanding of what’s happening here. You have serious issues my friend go and see your doctor.
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