TUC: Only workers’ reps can rein in excessive bosses pay
MOVES to give shareholders binding votes over executive pay do not go far enough, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) claimed today.
The labour body believes that workers should sit on remuneration committees in order to “introduce a touch of the real world to the process of setting top pay.”
Growing shareholder anger at poor business performance has seen pay reports voted down at firms including Aviva and Pendragon this year, with chief executives like Aviva’s Andrew Moss stepping down as a result.
The TUC welcomed last week’s proposals in the Queen’s Speech to make votes on pay binding, rather than merely advisory, boosting shareholder power over executives.
However, the TUC dismissed this as insufficient, arguing that in the nine years since shareholders were granted advisory pay votes only 21 of thousands of reports have been voted down.
As a result, it wants to raise the bar so that pay reports can only be passed with the backing of 75 per cent of shareholders, thus giving rebellions “added bite”.