All the union news that's fit to blog...
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Everyone knows we should tie executive remuneration to long-term metrics and give shareholders more powers to oversee pay policies, right?
Yeah, except that if we make execs wait for rewards they sharply discount them (if some really put much value on …Read more…
Next Wednesday see the AGM of Sports Direct take place. Since I last blogged about this it has become clear that a major investor revolt is underway.
The company has been publicly criticised by the Investor Forum (a first), which has called for a thor…Read more…
I’ve been banging on for a few years about incentives and motivation. It’s been interesting to watch as the common sense that performance-related pay is A Good Thing has lost legitimacy. However even despite the growing awareness of problems with relyi…Read more…
One of the things that troubles me about Labour at the moment is the apparent retreat into “worthy” politics. It’s typified a bit by that slogan “Standing Up, Not Standing By” and most of all by that godawful meme where Jeremy Corbyn says that socialis…Read more…
I’ve blogged quite a bit about Sports Direct previously, now it’s your chance to do something about it.
The Sports Direct AGM takes place on 7th September, and the company has just issued its notice of meeting. Resolution 19 has been filed by Unite an…Read more…
Alex Edmans has a blog on executive pay on HBR here. It’s wrong-headed in my view, so here’s a largely sarcasm and swearing-free response to it.
Politicians typically make two suggestions for pay reform. First, to cap, or at least force the disclosure of, the ratio of CEO pay to median employee…Read more…
After all the pre-billing, the Investment Association’s report on executive pay (issued yesterday) looks a little bit behind the curve. It has already been overtaken by events, with the new Conservative Prime Minister already advocating disclosure of p…Read more…
About a year ago, the group I’m involved in – Trade Union Share Owners (TUSO) – wrote out to major Sports Direct shareholders calling on them to challenge the company. Specifically we recommended that other shareholders join TUSO in signalling concerns…Read more…