BlueScope Steel's decision to grant executive bonuses of up to $3.05 million while at the same time axing 1,400 jobs from steelworks around the country has outraged the Australian Workers' Union and independent senator Nick Xenophon.

The steelmaker announced the job cuts yesterday as part of a group restructuring after it reported a full-year loss of more than $1 billion.

But according to its remuneration report, Managing Director Paul O'Malley will pocket a bonus of more than $700,000 on top of his current salary of almost $2 million.

"This is just unbelievable," AWU National Secretary Paul Howes said.

"Manufacturing is facing the worst crisis since the Great Depression and BlueScope's response is to further line the pockets of their paper-pushing executives who already earn a mint.

"These are the guys who presided over a billion-dollar loss, and now they're getting bonuses of up to $700,000.

"In fact, BlueScope is now even paying more in executive bonuses than it did in 2010.

"This is just not on. It's a slap in the face to all of BlueScope's hard-working employees who are now living through the trauma and uncertainty that comes with mass redundancies."
Senator Xenophon told reporters in Canberra he will ask BlueScope to justify the "outrageous" bonuses.

"There is something particularly obscene about BlueScope doing that when they have just laid off 1000 of their workers."

"That compensation level should be tied to their corporate behaviour. This corporate behaviour is pretty bad," Senator Xenophon said.