A Communications Workers of America-supported bid to give Frontier Communications stockholders a vote on how much compensation the company's executives received was narrowly defeated by a vote of 49.3 percent to 48.6 percent. Just more than 2 percent of shareholders abstained.
Had the resolution passed, stockholders would have been allowed a nonbinding advisory vote to express their approval-or disapproval-of executive compensation. Last year, a similar resolution was voted down 51.2 to 44.5 percent with 4.3 percent abstaining. CWA officials say the Frontier Board of Directors should give the proposal another look and reconsider accepting it, though the board advised shareholders against voting for the measure.
"The increase from last year shows that stockholders are becoming even more frustrated with the compensation practices of Frontier's Board," said CWA Vice President Jimmy Gurganus. "There truly is a disconnect between executive compensation and shareholder value at Frontier. This is not pay for performance. This Board simply does not get it."
"Say-on-pay" provisions have become popular ballot issues as senior-level compensation has become a larger issue at a multitude of companies. Qwest shareholders this week also rejected a proposal that would have given them an advisory vote on salaries by a nearly 2-1 margin.
For more:
- see this release
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