The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
BLOOMBERG
Amazon.com Inc shareholders voted down a slate of outside resolutions that would have asked the company to disclose more on workers’ rights and its climate change work, among other issues. Investors also approved Amazon’s executive pay practices, despite recommendations for a “no†vote from major shareholder advisory firms.
The company reelected its slate of directors, one of whom was returned to the board over the objections of proxy advisers. Vote totals weren’t immediately available. Amazon typically posts them in the days after the meeting.
The company’s annual meeting has long been a forum for critics to voice their concerns through resolutions demanding greater disclosure on sensitive topics. On the ballot this year were a record 18 outside resolutions amid government investigations of injury rates at company warehouses and criticism of Amazon on a range of other social and environmental matters. Some current and former frontline workers, including fired employee and Amazon Labor Union leader Chris Smalls, spoke on behalf of the proposals. Major proxy advisers had urged investors to approve shareholder resolutions calling for assessments of Amazon employees’ working conditions and freedom to organise, as well as review investments in surveillance technologies. Institutional Shareholder Services Inc and Glass Lewis & Co also said shareholders should block the reelection of director Judith McGrath, chair of the board’s leadership and compensation committee.
The firms have long criticised executive compensation. Amazon largely rewards senior leaders with stock grants that vest over a period of years, saying that aligns their interests with the company’s. ISS and Glass Lewis say the grants aren’t sufficiently tied to Amazon’s performance and can be awarded on an irregular timeline. Investors narrowly approved executive pay at last year’s annual meeting. The vast majority of such votes at US companies pass with overwhelming support. The say-on-pay vote and shareholder resolutions were nonbinding.