{"id":17915,"date":"2019-04-26T15:27:32","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T14:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=17915"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:56:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:56:49","slug":"patience-thin-fat-cat-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=17915","title":{"rendered":"Public faith in the system &#8216;collapsing&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Public anger is at boiling point over sky-high fat cat pay packets, an influential group of investors has warned.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s patience is wearing perilously thin with bosses awarding themselves millions of pounds in wages each year, pension fund advisor Pirc <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisismoney.co.uk\/money\/news\/article-6952233\/Capitalism-crisis-City-advisers-issue-stark-warning-fat-cat-pay.html\">said<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In the run up to a number of annual general meetings where pay packets will be ratified, Pirc said it is time to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbring some sanity back into the system\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and called on shareholders to reject obscene pay deals offered to executives at a number of firms.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Warning that shareholders must share responsibly for a culture of runaway corporate greed, Pirc said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bExecutive pay is like a corporate equivalent of the MPs&#8217; expenses scandal, mixed with Groundhog Day.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe same gap between public expectations and corporate practice is exposed year after year, but with no resolution.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is no wonder that the public has lost faith in the system.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Among the firms singled out by Pirc for <a href=\"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/tag\/executive-pay\/\">excessive pay<\/a> awards were Barclays bank and construction firms Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Former Persimmon chief executive Jeff Fairburn earned \u00c2\u014185m in pay and bonuses during 2017 and 2018, while Taylor Wimpey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pete Redfurn earns \u00c2\u01413.2m annually \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 44 times more than the average worker earns per year at the building firm.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Pirc said Barclay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chief executive Jes Staley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00c2\u01413.4m wage \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which is 34 times higher than the average pay packet \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is also too high.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said that while shareholder revolts against executive greed are welcome, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not enough to rely on investors to ensure fairness and curb blatant excesses\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear to anyone by now that they, as well as those in Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s boardrooms, have repeatedly failed to make any meaningful difference,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere needs to be real action to rein in the eye-watering executive pay and ever widening pay <a href=\"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/tag\/inequality\/\">inequality<\/a> that is causing ordinary people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s faith in the system to collapse and that action can only come from government.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bA good start would be to legislate for the inclusion of worker representatives on boards, as well as a clamp down on exploitative work practises \u00e2\u20ac\u201c such as bogus self-employment and zero-hour contracts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as well as the strengthening of trade union rights to organise and bargain for better wages on behalf of workers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public anger is at boiling point over sky-high fat cat pay packets, an influential group of investors has warned. &nbsp; People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s patience is wearing perilously thin with bosses awarding themselves millions of pounds in wages each year, pension fund advisor Pirc said this week. &nbsp; In the run up to a number of annual general [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[643,102],"wps_subtitle":"Public patience wearing thin over 'fat cat' pay packets","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17915"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25323,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17915\/revisions\/25323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}