TalkTalk chief executive Dido Harding has donated her bonus to charity after it was hacked
Dido Harding, the chief executive of telecoms giant TalkTalk, has donated this year's bonus to charity, the company said today.
In an annual report published this morning, it said Harding had decided to give her £220,000 bonus away to charitable causes. Although to be fair, it looked like she was going to do ok without it – the report showed her total income (including the bonus) rose to £2.8m this year, up from just over £1m last year.
Her salary rose from £538,000 to £550,000, while payments from the company's long-term incentive plan hit just under £2m – although that was technically awarded last year, before the cyber attack took place.
You can see why Harding decided to give her bonus away: remember that time TalkTalk was hacked, affecting 157,000 customers? Earlier this year the company said the attack – which at one point was feared to have affected as many as 4m customers – cost it as much as £60m.
Today the company said in light of the cyber attack, the remuneration committee had decided to cut executive directors' bonuses to 40 per cent of base pay, rather than the 62.4 per cent its bonus scheme targets suggested.
There was also a note on employees who had "gone above and beyond during teh cyber attack and given up their personal time" to help the company muddle through.
A nice, juicy bonus in their pay packets, perhaps? Nope: "We presented those involved with Red Letter Day vouchers, enabling them to choose a special treat for them and their families as a thank you for their support."
Yep, vouchers for an experience day. Gee, guys. You shouldn't have.