Cable lacks backbone on boardroom pay, says Unite
23 January 2012
Vince Cable’s announcement today (Monday 23 January) that he
intends to tighten up controls on boardroom pay should have
included a legally-binding proposal to have an employee
representative on remuneration committees.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: ”If business
secretary Vince Cable was really serious about tackling the
boardroom abuses, he should have included the legal requirement for
an employee representative on the remuneration committees as part
of his proposals. Instead, he spoke vaguely about boardroom
‘diversity’.
”An employee representative on the board by law would have sent
a clear message to the millions of working people, who have seen
their living standards slashed by the coalition’s callous austerity
programme, that ministers are serious about their ‘We are all in
this together’ mantra.“
Len McCluskey said that the coalition, that had been in power
for nearly two years, had been ‘dragged kicking and screaming’ to
this point – and that much more needed to be done to stop boardroom
abuses that had seen directors of FTSE 100 companies receiving 49
per cent pay rises.
Len McCluskey said: ”The key to this problem is the ‘you scratch
my back’ remuneration committees made up of the same old clique of
corporate high-rollers – the mandatory introduction of employee
representatives would have diluted this ‘old boy’ network.
”It is a disgrace that Unilever’s CEO earns 285 times that of
his average staff. Yet, a whole swathe of middle earners are facing
an income drop for the next eight years, according to the
Resolution Foundation.
”Ministers trot out the concept of ‘shareholder power’ - but
this is mere lip service when so many shareholders are institutions
or are based overseas.
”Vince Cable has made a start on tackling the problem of
excessive pay, but he needs to go much further and much
faster.”
In its evidence to the High Pay Commission Unite had said that
there should be employee representation on the remuneration
committees as a mechanism to curb bosses’ pay, which is out of all
proportion to average pay of about £25,900-a-year.
Last year, a survey by Income Data Services (IDS) revealed that
directors of FTSE 100 companies had received a 49 per cent pay rise
in the previous 12 months.
At the time Unite described as the IDS report as ‘damning’ and
showed just how much these ‘pampered’ directors were removed
from the lives of working people.
ENDS
Notes to news editors:
For further information please contact Unite communications
officer, Shaun Noble, on 07768 693940
