Just a quick plus for UNI and their excellent work exposing poor labour practices at Spanish-listed security firm Prosegur. The company is about to carry out a partial float of its cash-in-transit business, which makes this a very timely issue for inve…Read more…
A decade of blogging
I realised recently that I’ve just completed a decade of blogging. Although the arrival of two kids means I blog a lot less often than I used to, and read a lot less to blog about, I still feel the urge to communicate. Partly I just enjoy writing, but …Read more…
Where are the workers?
The LSE has produced guidance on company reporting on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. So I searched it for references to various issues. Guess what? Like most RI/ESG initiatives, labour issues get very little attention.
Shifts in the UK corporate governance model
I’ve blogged a bit recently about what appears to be a significant shift in thinking about corporate governance. There are signs all over the place that faith in shareholder primacy is faltering. There have been plenty of think pieces on this subject o…Read more…
Is this what asset managers really think about executive pay?
There was a fascinating piece in The Times a couple of days ago about asset managers threatening to get tough on executive pay. You know, the news story that now appears before every AGM season, quite often accompanied by claims this could be the “stor…Read more…
A corporate governance agenda for the Left
1. Explicitly remove shareholder primacy from the UK system. This should be argued on the basis that it hasn’t worked, the shareholder base has changed too much to make the model work for the public (shareholders now primarily split between the City – …Read more…
Public supports tough line on exec pay shocker
As I blogged previously, the commentariat was united last week in its certainty that Jeremy Corbyn was talking rubbish when he proposed some pretty tough positions on executive pay.
Amazingly, it turns out the the public favours taking a very tough li…Read more…
Capping executive pay
It’s fair to say that today has not been an unblemished success for Labour. Nonetheless, despite everything, there is something encouraging in what Corbyn has been saying about executive pay.
First off, let’s tune out the noise. Much of the politico c…Read more…
ASOS exec pay in the spotlight
I blogged last month about the ASOS AGM results, which still puzzle me a little, but the big takeaway was a significant shareholder vote against the company’s remuneration report.
Well, today we can see there are good reasons for shareholders and othe…Read more…
Unrealised expectations of unintended consequences – Update
A few years back I started pulling together a list of reforms that were enacted despite dire warnings of unintended consequences. As Albert Hirschman (PBUH) pointed out, despite the focus of conservative/reactionary voices on uninte…Read more…
A few end of year thoughts
A few random thoughts that kept coming up during 2016…
It is not the case that different stakeholder interests within the firm necessarily align, even over the long term. As we learnt recently, for instance, some stakeholders will actively lobby aga…Read more…
ASOS AGM action!
This week saw some great campaigning by the GMB as part of their ongoing battle against poor working practices within ASOS, which has had a particular focus on the distribution centre in Barnsley run by XPO. The GMB had a “Catwalk of Shame” outside, an…Read more…
The forward march of shareholder oversight halted
I’m going to stop blogging about corporate governance reform for a bit, as I’m starting to bore myself as I keep ending back at the same place. But the endless discussion about executive pay has helped me crystallise a couple of thoughts that I thought…Read more…
Has UK corporate governance swung to the Left?
Continuing on from the theme of recent posts on workers on boards, despite some of the pushback from expected sources, what is really striking is how much corporate governance policy has shifted towards policies largely articulated by the Left in recen…Read more…
Workers on boards: handle with care
Before I get into the detail of this post I just want to make me thing clear: pension funds’ assets exist to fund pensions for the people that work for organisations – the workers. Those assets were also created by the labour of those workers – it is t…Read more…
Labour, labour and workers on boards
A very quick point about how, in my opinion, Labour should position itself in relation to the question of workers on boards. Obviously it should support the idea, but the issue is how to argue this in public.
In general terms, I would steer clear of t…Read more…
The (investment) world turned upside down
These are just a few initial sketchy thoughts, but I see some signs that something interesting is starting to happen in the world of corporate governance, and institutional investment more generally. A couple of years back I blogged a bit about a “regu…Read more…
Sky vs Sports Direct
As most people will be aware, last month the non-executive chairman of Sports Direct Keith Hellawell failed to receive the support of a majority of non-insider shareholders (though he received the support of the majority of all shareholders, including …Read more…
Sports Direct shifts again
Just a quick update, the process of reform at Sports Direct has obviously just started, but some welcome news today. The company has committed to a fully independent review of the business, including employment practices. Whilst it had previo…Read more…
Sports Direct: time for change
As you may have noticed, Sports Direct had its AGM this week, and meeting was totally dominated by how the board intends to overhaul its workforce practices. The treatment of the workforce at Sports Direct’s Shirebrook warehouse has become a national s…Read more…