BlueScope bosses face workers resolutions at AGM

The Australian Workers' Union National Secretary Bill Shorten said many BlueScope workers are also shareholders in the company and have a double interest in its ongoing success. "BlueScope has performed very well but executives should not be unhappy at a major stakeholder taking an active role in debate about the company," Mr Shorten said.

"The AWU aims to encourage and educate employee shareholders in the important debate about corporate governance at their companies. The resolutions are designed to improve the long-term job opportunities and income security of AWU members through the best possible corporate governance standards at BlueScope."

The AWU employee shareholders have proposed five resolutions to change the BlueScope company constitution to:

limit the term of non-executive directors to 10 years;
limit executive "golden handshakes" to two years' salary;
prevent directors holding more than four public company directorships, or one chairmanship and two directorships;
require shareholder approval for director and executive salaries in excess of 20 times the average salary of other BlueScope workers.
The AWU represents 4,000 workers at BlueScope and the company is the largest single employer of AWU members. Mr Shorten said the company was the first target of an AWU campaign for better corporate governance at companies employing AWU members.

The AWU cited studies showing the pay of Australian Chief Executive Officers has jumped from 22 times average weekly earnings in 1992 to 74 times average weekly earnings in 2002. A university study commissioned by the NSW Labor Council last year found that company performance actually declined with extremely high salaries for CEOs.

The study - The Buck Stops Here (by academics John Shields and John O'Brien) - found the best corporate performance coincided with CEO salaries of between 17 and 24 times average wages - exactly encompassing the 20 times level proposed by the AWU resolution.