Telstra heeds shareholder ire on pay SOL Trujillo says Telstra's board has heeded last year's investor backlash over the telco's remuneration report. He told BusinessDaily yesterday that the company's pay scheme, which saw him take home $13.4 million last financial year, was working in the interests of shareholders. "Clearly the compensation plan has worked very well for shareholders," he said. All you have to do is compare our performance versus others. Despite the turmoil hitting financial markets, Telstra has remained something of an investor safe-haven, falling only 12.5 per cent since January compared with a 45 per cent slump on the broader market. Investors last year rebuked Telstra over its remuneration report, with more than 66 per cent of shareholders voting against it because it failed to adequately disclose performance hurdles. Mr Trujillo said yesterday he wasn't anticipating similar fallout at tomorrow's annual meeting because Telstra had taken on board the concerns and the telco had hit all of the ambitious performance targets he set three years ago. "Clarity is always good and I think the chairman of our remuneration committee, Charles Macek, has spent a lot of time taking the feedback and being even more clear in terms of this report," he said. Corporate governance experts RiskMetrics agrees, giving Telstra's latest remuneration report the thumbs up and advising big shareholders to vote in favour. It highlights reservations about the exclusion of Mr Trujillo and chief operating officer Greg Winn from a new long-term incentive scheme applying to other senior executives. It also notes that an options grant to Mr Trujillo does not require shareholder approval. However, the governance adviser said these issues were insufficient to warrant a negative vote. "Given the progress they've made over the last year we're recommending in favour of the report - you've got to give credit where credit's due," RiskMetrics Australia director Dean Paatsch said yesterday. Mr Trujillo's comments came as Telstra delivered its sixth annual corporate responsibility report, revealing it contributed heavily to community activities and low-income and special needs groups.