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Commenting on the announcement today (Wednesday) from Business Secretary Vince Cable that there is to be a consultation on executive pay and enhanced shareholder voting rights, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
Title

date: 14 March 2012

embargo: For immediate release

Commenting on the announcement today (Wednesday) from Business Secretary Vince Cable that there is to be a consultation on executive pay and enhanced shareholder voting rights, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'While today's proposals for a binding vote on future pay for directors and for raising the level of votes required for agreement to above 50 per cent are sensible, the failure to allow workers to sit on remuneration committees means little is likely to change.

'People are understandably angry that while ordinary families struggle to make ends meet in a climate of falling pay and rising costs, pay and bonus payouts to senior executives seem to have been completely unaffected by the economic crisis.

'In recent years shareholders have spectacularly failed to rein in executive excess, and even with these extra powers at their disposal, it's unlikely that they will have the motivation or would be sufficiently critical to achieve the change that the public so clearly wants to see.

'Employee reps on remuneration committees could help bring the setting of top pay and bonuses into the real world. Encouraging employees to be involved through existing information and consultation arrangements is no substitute for workers' seats on pay committees.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- In January the TUC set out five reasons why the government should introduce worker representation onto remuneration committees as a way of tackling the widening pay gap between top directors and the rest of the workforce www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-20501-f0.cfm

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Elly Gibson T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: egibson@tuc.org.uk

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