Swiss Curb Executive Greed; Will Anyone Follow?

from truthdig:


Swiss Curb Executive Greed; Will Anyone Follow?

Posted on Mar 5, 2013
By William Pfaff


Switzerland just had a referendum in which it voted to give company and bank shareholders veto rights over the salaries, bonuses and overall compensation packages of senior executives and board directors.

Bonuses will be prohibited for executives being hired, those leaving, and for those present when a company is taken over. Pension funds holding stock in a company will be required to take part in these compensation votes. Violation of the new rules can be punished by fines worth up to six years of salary and prison sentences of up to three years. These requirements will be written into the Swiss constitution. In short, the Swiss want revolutionary change in the manner by which the modern European (and implicitly, American) corporation is managed, and in how it distributes its funds. This is a demand based on morality.

A majority of 68 percent of those voting in all the Swiss cantons approved this initiative. The Swiss citizenry, in short, is very angry about the current practices of Swiss corporations and financial institutions, even though the country is scarcely noted for past criticism of high finance and the practices prevailing in the international economy.

The Swiss are not the only ones angry at the pay practices of globalized capitalism. The European Union’s Commission, executive agency of the 27-member EU—whose combined economy is the largest and potentially most powerful in the world, dominating world trade—has just delivered a second staggering blow to international finance and the practices of bankers. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/swiss_curb_executive_greed_will_anyone_follow_20130305/