BT axes 4,000 jobs and strips boss Gavin Patterson of annual bonus after 'challenging' year

The telecoms giant, which employs over 1,000 across the Black Country, said the jobs would go as part of restructuring it Global Services, Group Functions and Technology, Services & Operations (TSO), saving around £300m over two years.

BT, which employs more than 100,000 people worldwide, did not say exactly where the job cuts will fall. A spokeswoman said: "These 4,000 jobs will be back-office and managerial roles in Global Services, around the world (it operates in 180 countries), as well as head office roles.

"By removing these roles we will be able to sustain our investment in customer service, where BT Consumer has added over 2,200 UK and Ireland based contact centre roles this year, and in Openreach, where we are recruiting 1,500 trainee engineers by the end of October 2017."

BT employs around 1,100 people across the Black Country at major bases in Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley and at Providence Place in West Bromwich.

The company made the announcements alongside fourth quarter results, which saw pre-tax profit fall 48 per cent to £440 million.

Revenue came in at £6.1 billion versus £5.5bn in the same period last year.

For the year as a whole, to March 31, revenue was up 27 per cent to £24bn while pre-tax profit fell 19 per cent to £2.3bn.

The group's figures were hit by a £342m Ofcom fine and related compensation payments.

Mr Patterson said: "This has been a challenging year for BT.

"We've faced headwinds in the UK public sector and international corporate markets and must learn from what we found in our Italian business."

The company's share price and profits have been dented as a result of the Italian accounting scandal, first revealed in January, which also saw BT's European head Corrado Sciolla leave the group.

Mr Patterson's total pay packet of £1.3 million is down from £5.3m the previous year. The company's remuneration committee has also decided outgoing finance chief Tony Chanmugam will not receive a bonus, with his total pay dropping to £258,000 from £2.8m.

Remuneration committee chairman Tony Ball said: "Our performance has been significantly affected by the accounting irregularities in our Italian business, the issues that arose in Openreach around deemed consent and the significant challenges we faced in the UK public sector and international corporate markets."

In a further upheaval, the BT Global's chief executive Luis Alvarez will leave the group, to be replaced by Bas Burger.