The UK Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has released its 2023 update to its annual Stewardship and Voting Guidelines, with three themes in particular focus: the cost-of-living crisis, climate change and the impact of company operations on its workforce and wider society. The Voting guidelines recommend remuneration structures and incentives for executive directors should cascade down to all employees in order to allow employees to share in the success of the business. On climate change, the PLSA recommend investors consider voting against companies’ annual report and accounts where “operations are highly carbon intensive and there has been no disclosure of the climate-related assumptions which underlie their financial calculations, or where those assumptions are not consistent with the Paris Agreement.” On workforce issues, the PLSA says it is paramount that companies take steps to prevent modern slavery, and that effort should be taken to increase wider diversity and inclusion in organisations. Joe Dabrowski, Deputy Director – Policy PLSA, said: “Large shareholders have a duty to act as good stewards of the capital they manage on behalf of pension savers and other end investors. Annual general meetings are an important juncture at which they can scrutinise and influence directors to ensure investee companies are run in the best interests of pension savers and other long-term shareholders.”
Today the PLSA has published its 2023 update to its annual Stewardship and Voting Guidelines, designed to help pension fund trustees, investment managers and other institutional investors decide how to exercise their vote at annual general meetings. https://t.co/uYqvkYrBZY pic.twitter.com/A6rJWDFbvK
— PLSA (@ThePLSA) March 30, 2023
