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Shareholders refuse to support bosses' terms
Page 9
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• by Guy Sheppard Two bosses at troubled logistics group Christian Salvesen have received an embarrassing snub from shareholders over the terms of their employment contracts.
Chief executive Edward Roderick and finance director Peter Aspden are still retaining the right to two years' pay if sacked, even though one year's pay is regarded as best boardroom practice. At the annual shareholders meeting in Edinburgh, more than a quarter of shareholders refused to support remuneration packages which guarantee Roderick £800,000 and Aspden £470,000 if they lose their jobs.
The vote saw 9% of shareholders against the contracts and 18% abstain. A spokesman for the company acknowledges that the abstentions reflect a general move among institutional shareholders against two-year contracts.
"The company would accept that best practice is for one-year contracts and it now has a policy of only awarding a oneyear contract to incoming directors," he says.
"The vote was against or abstaining from the contracts, rather than the individuals' reappointment. The institutions are clearly putting a marker down and companies such as Christian Salvesen will listen to their views," In other big pies such as Rolls-Royce, senior directors are giving up their entitlement to two years' pay in favour of oneyear contracts. Exel chief John Allan is on a one-year contract of £582,000, while Paul Bateman, Wincanton's chief executive, is also only entitled to one year's pay if sacked. He earned .2267,000 in salary and bonuses between his appointment in October 2002 and March 2003.
Last month, Salvesen reported a 30% fall in pre-tax profits to £201 million CM 5-11 June).
• A union ballot asking nearly 50 Christian Salvesen drivers in Lincolnshire if they want to strike over their latest pay offer should be complete by the end of next week, says the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G).
The union is upset because a 30/0 pay offer by the company is being offset by cutting holiday pay, scrapping drivers' meal allowances and increasing weekend working (CM10-16 July).
"What the company is giving with one hand it is taking away with the other," says Geoff [spin, the union's regional organiser.
The drivers involved work out of Salvesen's cold-storage depot in Easton. Nobody from the company was available for comment as CM went to press.