Leaders of the £650 billion pensions industry have accused
government ministers of failing to introduce tough measures which could help
shareholders curb the rise of company directors’ salaries.
The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) urged its
members at its annual conference in Birmingham to lobby the top 750 companies
and persuade them to put their pay reports to a vote of shareholders.
Only ten of the UK’s top 350 companies had held a
shareholder vote on directors’ pay structures last year, according to the
association.
In a letter to its members, chairman of NAPF’s investment
committee, Alan Rubenstein, backed a recent demand by institutional investors
for more accountability on pay.
He condemned the government for failing to tackle the
critical question of whether companies should put their directors’ pay reports
to a vote.
The NAPF’s campaign comes in the wake of an initiative by a
group of institutional investors led by Hermes, one of the UK’s largest fund
managers.
The investors, who together own more than 5 per cent of the
UK stock market, have asked companies to put their remuneration reports to a
vote at annual general meetings.
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