May 21, 2009
SEIU Pushes for Clawbacks of Excessive Pay
– Broc Romanek, CompensationStandards.com
Recently, the SEIU Master Trust – the pension funds managed on behalf of the SEIU – sent letters to the boards at 29 major financial services companies, demanding that they investigate more than $5 billion in compensation to their NEOs that may have been tied to derivatives and other instruments that are now worthless. The SEIU argues that if the payments – including cash and equity – are shown to be based on false economic metrics, they may be subject to clawbacks. They further demand that the boards overhaul their executive compensation practices so that the NEOs don’t reap bonuses and other incentivized pay regardless of corporate performance. A list of the 29 companies is at the bottom of this press release.
In this podcast, Mike Barry of Grant & Eisenhofer and Stephen Abrecht of the SEIU explain this movement by SEIU’s Master Trust to seek clawback of excessive pay, including:
– How did the SEIU choose the targeted 29 companies?
– What legal theories are being used to seek recovery of excessive pay?
– What did the letters request? Do they seek responses from the boards of the companies?