unions want executive salaries to be capped

Yahoo News
Unions will be pushing for executive salaries to be capped at 10 times the average wage at the corporations where they work.

They also want shareholders to be allowed to sue executives who perform poorly.

The federal government has been promising to tackle the "extreme capitalism" at the root of the current economic crisis, turning its attention to exorbitant pay packets and huge golden handshakes.

At its national congress in Brisbane this week, the ACTU plans to consider measures to bring executive pay packets into line with ordinary Australians.

"Outrageous executive salaries and bonuses encouraged a culture of excessive risk-taking and short-term thinking that is widely acknowledged as a major cause of the global financial crisis," ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence said in a statement.

"Year after year of virtually unlimited increases in CEO pay packets mean that executive remuneration is now out of all proportion with the work performed."

Mr Lawrence said the union proposal would return executive pay to a more realistic level, and link rewards and bonuses to the genuine growth and productivity of the enterprise.

"Unions will be backing up a push for legal changes with a robust industrial campaign to curb executive pay and ensure all employees in an enterprise - not just the CEO - are appropriately and fairly rewarded for their contribution," he said.

Dave R.