Ethos and the Global Unions Committee on Workers’ Capital (CWC) announce the launch of Global Proxy Review 2013, a report and interactive website that encourages investors to take an active role in proxy voting oversight for global equity portfolios.
The votes profiled in the report encompass ESG issues at companies in 15 economic sectors. They include votes held at multinational corporations such as: Wal-Mart, News Corporation, Barrick Gold, Heineken, Standard Bank, Telefonicà, UBS and Glencore-Xstrata. Approximately one third of the votes selected related to executive compensation, reflecting a continued preoccupation toward excessive executive pay one year after the ‘shareholder spring’ of 2012. National regulatory contexts are also evolving to facilitate active ownership by shareholders; ‘say-on-pay’ votes are now mandatory in all countries featured in the report except Canada and the results are binding in Australia, the Netherlands, the UK (starting in October 2013) and will become binding by 2015 in Switzerland. In addition to governance issues, the votes profiled also include significant social issues such as reporting on human rights related risks.
Now in its third edition, Global Proxy Review is a report along with an interactive website (www.workerscapital.org/proxyre¬view) acting as a repository where users can search key votes compiled since 2011. The project is a collaboration between the CWC and labour and responsible investment advocates from across the globe. Partners include: Australian Council of Super Investors (Australia); Shareholder Association for Research and Education (Canada); Eumedion (Netherlands); Government Employees Pension Fund (South Africa); the Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras and the Union General de Trabajadores de España (Spain); ETHOS Foundation (Switzerland); The Trades Union Congress and Pensions Investment Research Consultants Ltd (UK); and the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organizations (US).
