SWITZERLAND - The Ethos Foundation, a Geneva-based sustainable investor, wants local companies to let shareholders vote on remuneration policies.
In the latest update of its proxy voting guidelines the organisation takes up an OECD recommendation that companies should put their remuneration policies to an advisory vote of the shareholders at the annual general meeting.
"Such practice works in a very satisfactory manner in several countries, for instance the United Kingdom," Ethos stated in a press release, adding that in the Netherlands and Sweden the outcome of the shareholders' vote on this issue is binding.
Ethos also gives detailed guidelines for shareholders on when to approve of remuneration policies and when to vote against them, stressing that the information companies provide on remuneration must be clearly understandable to shareholders.
The 2007 edition of Ethos' Proxy voting guidelines is available free of charge on the organisation's homepage: www.ethosfund.ch .
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