Conroy urges rethink on Telstra CEO pay
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Shareholders voted against Mr Trujillo's pay package at last year's annual general meeting. (AFP: William West)
Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has told the Telstra board it should reconsider its decision on executive pay.
Telstra's chairman has defended the $13.4 million remuneration package for chief executive officer Sol Trujillo.
Shareholders voted against the pay package at last year's annual general meeting, but the board went ahead with the deal.
Senator Conroy says the Telstra board should take shareholder and public concern about executive salaries into account.
"The board should take very seriously when its own shareholders reject the package that the CEO is on," he said.
"I think the Telstra board have to have a good, hard look at themselves and start responding, not just to broader community concerns, but their own shareholders have been clear that they didn't approve of the package that the board recommended."
At the company's annual general meeting, held today in Melbourne, the head of the Telstra board's remuneration committee defended Mr Trujillo's pay.
Charles Macek said Mr Trujillo had transformed the company but may not receive the whole amount because not all share performance measures were met.
"Sol Trujillo's total reportable remuneration for 2008 is some $13.4 million," he said.
"But it is important to note that reported remuneration is not the same as take home pay or value to the executive."
Meanwhile, Telstra workers voted this afternoon on strike action over pay deals, but a result has not yet emerged.
Communications Electrical Plumbing Union (CEPU) national president Len Cooper says workers are furious about Telstra's ongoing refusal to negotiate a collective agreement with its employees.
"People are angry, because on one hand you've got a company with a CEO getting the type of remuneration of [$13.4 million] a year and a 14 per cent increase last year and they are refusing to give even a cost of living increase for the workers in the company," he said.
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