FNV
Europese bonden in actie tegen topinkomens
Op initiatief van de FNV hebben ook de zusterorganisaties in Engeland
en Duitsland zich uitgesproken tegen de onverantwoordelijke stijging
van topinkomens. Tijdens het EVV-congres in Praag presenteerden ze een
gezamenlijke verklaring.
De vakcentrales FNV, DGB (Duitsland) en TUC (Engeland) doen een beroep
op hun regeringen en de Europese Commissie om de hebzucht van de
bestuurders aan te pakken.
De drie vakcentrales willen een gesprek met Europees commissaris
Bolkestein over maatregelen binnen de Europese Unie.
Samen vertegenwoordigen de 3 vakcentrales zo'n 15,5 miljoen
vakbondsleden.
Hierbij de letterlijke tekst van de verklaring:
Appeal on excessive executive pay to: The European Commission, and the
national governments of Germany, the Netherlands, and the United
Kingdom
Excessive executive pay is now an issue pressing at the very heart of
European capitalism. Business legitimacy is being eroded as Europe's
citizens are shocked by further examples of this new creed of greed.
Such a loss of business legitimacy will undermine successful
companies, and could create major problems for their workforces.
Company boards that award themselves large pay rises without any clear
link to performance are creating a crisis of confidence among
customers, employees and shareholders. To make matters worse boards
often ensure that they will reap substantial rewards even if their
contract is terminated. This can mean that they are being rewarded for
failure. In these circumstances disillusionment and discontent is
fuelled when employees see their co-workers laid off at the same time
as board members line their pockets.
The key question raised by this situation for institutional investors
- who in many cases are ultimately workers' pension funds - is: are
these excessive executive pay arrangements in the interests of
shareholders, and likely to lead to wealth creation.
Too often in recent years it has seemed that executives regard
companies as vehicles for self-enrichment rather than for the creation
of wealth for all stakeholders. In this sense a company's approach to
executive pay is a key indicator of how focused the management is on
its primary function. To get it wrong is a major failing of corporate
governance.
We are currently seeing some response from institutional investors but
too often the response is weak. This is due to a disconnection between
the ultimate owners - for example the pension funds - and the fund
managers they employ. As long as fund managers are not required to
publicly disclose how they vote it is impossible to tell which ones
are genuinely trying to address failings in corporate governance.
It is also time to revisit how remuneration is decided. Supervisory
boards and company remuneration committees are filled by executives.
We now know that letting executives decide each other's pay often
leads to vastly excessive pay, unchallenging targets and huge rewards
even when executives do a poor job.
We therefore urge our Governments and the European commission, where
appropriate, to:
1. Ensure that Supervisory boards discuss and decide on the structure
and amount of remuneration (all parts) that are fixed and variable
such as retirement schemes, etc. These decisions can only be
prepared in relevant subcommittees when employees` representatives
are involved.
2. Guarantee maximum transparency, structure and amount of
remuneration of each and every member of an executive board of a
company, which has to be published on an individual basis in the
company's annual business report.
3. Members of Supervisory councils must have the option to establish
a limitation on stock options, which sometimes are part of the
remuneration.
4. Urge the European Commission to establish in the guideline under
discussion a legal framework for the aforementioned rules.
5. Encourage, on a national basis, these rules being implemented by
law or by consent between employers' and employees'
representatives through a Corporate Governance Codex, which should
include also the possibility of sanctions.
6. Ensure that in those countries, where there is no employee
representation on supervisory boards of big companies, that there
is more diversity in remuneration committees, including
considering statutory employee representation.
7. Introduce mandatory binding votes on executive remuneration, and
require institutional investors to publicly disclose their voting
records.
Brendan Barber General Secretary TUC
Lodewijk de Waal President FNV
Michael Sommer President DGB
28 mei 2003