Bluescope AGM gets the workers' message

The three-hour AGM at Sydney's Westin Hotel was dominated by debate on the AWU's resolutions to require shareholder approval for executive salaries in excess of 20 times average employee earnings, and to limit bosses' "golden handshakes" to two years' salary.

Other AWU resolutions to amend the company's constitution proposed a limit on the term of non-executive directors to 10 years and the prevention of directors holding more than four directorships, or one chairmanship and two directorships in public companies.

The company recommended a vote against all the AWU amendments and, as expected by the AWU, proxy voters defeated the resolutions. However, from 8% to 12% of all shareholder votes - worth an estimated $400 million - were cast in favour of the AWU resolutions, far more than the employee shareholding of less than 1%.

"The size of the vote in favour of the AWU resolutions indicates that employee shareholders are supported by a significant minority of other stakeholders in the company in their campaign to improve accountability at BlueScope Steel," AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten said.

"Debating the issues at the BlueScope AGM has been a success in giving steelworkers a voice at the Board level, involving employee shareholders in their legitimate role as corporate stakeholders, and helping to open the way for a real dialogue between the AWU and management," Mr Shorten said.

"We came to the meeting to be heard, and BlueScope has got the message. We had a company that would not talk to us, a company that had tried to ignore a legitimate stakeholder since its earliest days more than 80 years ago."

AWU Assistant National Secretary Graham Roberts told the AGM that BlueScope's top executives this year gave themselves an average pay rise of 35%, compared to the 4.5% they were offering workers.

The Federal Opposition's spokesman on corporate governance, Labor Senator Stephen Conroy, also spoke at the meeting, saying that the AGM was an appropriate forum for discussion of the issues raised.

The AWU represents 4,000 workers at BlueScope and the company is the largest single employer of AWU members. Most workers are also shareholders in the company. The AWU is considering similar shareholder campaigns at other companies that employ significant numbers of AWU members.