UK – The TUC has launched its own shareholder engagement group, pledging to exercise its voting rights in line with union values.

The union umbrella group has launched the initiative – Trade Union Share Owners – alongside Unite and Unison, pooling around £1bn (€1.2bn) of assets between them with the aim of lobbying for the introduction of living over minimum wages, as well as arguing for a 20:1 pay ratio between the highest and lowest paid within companies.

It said it would work with existing proxy voting agency PIRC to ensure a common voting position based on its new engagement guidelines.

In the document's introduction, the TUC added: "It is important for trade unions to play an active role in corporate governance because the way companies are run is inextricably linked to other important areas of our work such as labour standards, job security, social and environmental responsibility and the development of the relationship between finance and industry."

Frances O'Grady, general secretary at the TUC, said the organisation would in future be "voting in line with [its] values" and added: "This initiative represents a new approach to tackling corporate irresponsibility for unions."

Her counterpart at Unison, Dave Prentis, said the approach would allow the unions to display their collective investment power.  

"We will be active shareowners of FTSE companies, in the interests of our scheme members and other stakeholders in the companies our funds own," he said. "We will be modern, responsible investors."

Len McCluskey, head of Unite, said companies often took decisions that were bad for the UK, citing recent bonuses at Barclays.

"This is a clear reminder that corporations need to be forced to behave responsibly," he said. "Unite will now be doing just that by putting our values at the heart of corporate governance."

The unions said they would be pushing for at least one-quarter of all board positions to be held by women, as well as limiting the number of board positions any one member can hold.

In other news, Japanese technology giant Fujitsu has contributed £800m towards a number of its underfunded UK defined benefit (DB) schemes.

The agreement will also see the sponsor reduce its annual contributions, with the company arguing that the approach will allow it to "accelerate" investment into the UK.

Commenting on the payment, the director general of business lobby CBI John Cridland said it marked the company's "commitment to honouring the pension promise made to employees".

"Like many businesses, they are working hard to grow as well as fund pensions," he said.

"Last week's Budget announcement of a new duty on the Pensions Regulator to support the growth of firms that are standing by their scheme will be good news for every business with a DB scheme."

The CBI has long spoken in favour of the new statutory objective for the UK regulator, which the Department for Work & Pensions is expected to announce soon.