Brendan Barber
General secretary, Trades Union Congress
Even on those rare occasions when shareholders get upset — only 18 pay reports out of the thousands voted upon in the past nine years have been rejected — the votes are not binding. If the government is pinning its hopes on shareholders to rein in top pay, then requiring remuneration reports to secure a 75 percent approval rating would be a good start. Putting workers on remuneration committees would also bring a much-needed dose of common sense to pay discussions.
Deborah Hargreaves
Director, High Pay Centre
It’s a shareholder spring. Shareholders have finally found their voice: It’s taken some time, but let’s hope it’s not the end of it. Companies should respond. Shareholders can do so much, but companies have to get their own house in order.
Companies have to realize they’re operating in a very different climate. Families are struggling to make ends meet. These rewards are not merited in any sense by company performance; companies need to build trust among the public.
Joanne Segars
CEO, National Association of Pension Funds
Pension funds have always tried to take this issue seriously. What I hope now is that we see action from companies. [Recent events do] show that pension funds take this seriously and that we have been putting increased focus on this since the crisis.
I don’t think pension funds are acting now [just] because the politicians are now interested in this. Quite clearly there are number of companies where performance doesn’t justify [the pay]. I don’t think this is a blip.
Simon Walker
Director-general, Institute of Directors
It is shareholder activism. It’s blossoming and spring is the right word as it’s not a summer yet. To me it’s capitalism renewing itself. Those of us who believe in free markets ought to be shouting from the rooftops. It’s happening now because times are tough. When there is a boom and money seems to be pouring in, I think people are less inclined to ask hard questions. When a company’s value is eroding, of course people, because of human nature, are going to be far more aggressive asking where the money is going.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US