BERLIN — Foreign executives who moved their company headquarters to Switzerland to get better tax deals for their firms may find themselves paying the price for it this weekend. Voters Sunday are expected to pass a referendum proposal to crack down on excessive corporate pay packages.
If the ‘‘Rip-off Initiative’’ succeeds, shareholders will be given the right to hold a binding vote on a company’s compensation of executives and directors. This includes both base salary and bonuses.
It would also ban ‘‘golden hellos’’ and ‘‘golden goodbyes’’ — one-time bonuses that senior managers often receive when joining or leaving a company that can run into millions of dollars.
Finally, the proposal pushes greater corporate transparency; for example, by requiring that all loans to executives be declared to shareholders.
Breaching the rules could lead to a fine of up to six annual salaries and up to three years in prison.
The measure targets all Swiss-based companies — homegrown and offshore alike — as long as their shares are publicly traded. International companies like oil rig owner Transocean Ltd., fire and safety company Tyco International Ltd., and bakery conglomerate Aryzta would be treated just like Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse, food and drinks company Nestle, or watchmaker Swatch.
Transocean was part of the Gulf gusher disaster, and those Swiss banks are up to their ears in LIBOR and all the other bank frauds as well as being the vehicle for hiding vast amounts of ill-gotten elite wealth.
In Europe, some other countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark have similar legislation allowing shareholders at least a binding vote on executive compensation. In the United States and Britain, however, such ‘‘say-on-pay’’ votes are nonbinding.
Which tells you that the US and Britain are slaves to bankers.
The proposal is the brainchild of independent lawmaker and businessman Thomas Minder. It has divided Swiss business groups, political parties, and labor unions. But public opinion in Switzerland — traditionally a haven for light-touch regulation and probusiness sentiment — has been overwhelmingly in favor of the Rip-off Initiative.
A survey conducted mid-February by the respected polling group gfs.bern found 64 percent of voters in favor of the proposal, 27 percent against, and 9 percent undecided, with anger at perceived corporate greed the driving force for voters backing the initiative.
Gonna be hard to rig that vote, and what's with the greed qualifier, mealy-mouth? It'$ all the way you look at it?
And they wonder why you are angry?
As in the United States, public opinion toward executive pay is still shaped by the outrage at “fat cat” bank bosses who received million-dollar bonuses during the 2008 financial crisis, when ordinary investors were seeing their dividends slashed and the value of their shares fall sharply.
Yeah, and that is not going away -- especially when they haven't changed their behavior at all.
Honestly, until all those f***ers end up in a jail cell and complete restitution has been made I won't be happy or less angry. The looting has gone on long enough.
The campaign for a ‘‘Yes’’ vote recently got an unexpected boost when it emerged that the outgoing board chairman of Swiss drug maker Novartis AG, Daniel Vasella, was due to receive $77 million over five years as part of a deal to prevent him from going to a rival firm.
Related: The New American Factory
I'm so glad they're coming here.
Also see: 40 Novartis jobs leaving Cambridge for N.J.
WTF?
When Vasella — facing public outrage — dropped the deal, attention shifted to Edward Breen, the American chairman of Tyco, for reportedly earning 30 million francs last year.
See: Novartis chief drops $78m payout
Not that it matters much (sigh), but is it $77 or $78 million (sigh). I mean, we are only talking a measly million here so....
Opponents of the initiative warn that approving it would damage Switzerland’s competitiveness in the global economy and endanger jobs.
I'm so sick of hearing that s***-saw of an argument.
No companies have publicly declared they would leave Switzerland if the referendum passes, said Brigitta Moser-Harder, a shareholder activist and backer of the proposal.
Isn't that a threat and extortion?
But Tyco is keeping its options open. ‘‘We await the outcome of the vote in Switzerland on Sunday and we will assess the impact at that time,’’ company spokesman Brett Ludwig said Friday. The Swiss proposal comes on the heels of a European Union decision this week to cap bankers’ bonuses at one year’s base salary except in the case of overwhelming shareholder approval.
See: EU moving to cap banker bonuses
The idea that shareholders should have a strong say in their company’s affairs chimes with Switzerland’s tradition of direct democracy. Voters in the country who collect 100,000 signatures can force a binding referendum on any issue.
And markets hate that.
Two other possible Swiss referendums are looming, both linked to salary issues. One concerns setting a minimum wage and the other is a ‘‘1 for 12’’ initiative, to ensure that the top salary in a company does not exceed the lowest one by more than 12 times.
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A few more surprises for you:
"Swiss OK system to rein in CEO pay" by Raphael Minder | New York Times, March 04, 2013
GENEVA — Swiss residents voted on Sunday to impose some of the world’s most severe restrictions on executive compensation, ignoring a warning from the business lobby that such curbs would undermine the country’s investor-friendly image.
The vote gives shareholders of companies listed in Switzerland a binding say on the overall pay packages for executives and directors. Pension funds holding shares in a company would be obligated to take part in votes on compensation packages.
In addition, companies will no longer be allowed to give bonuses to executives joining or leaving the business, or to executives when their company is taken over. Violations could result in fines equal to up to six years of salary and a prison sentence of up to three years.
The vote was a triumph for Thomas Minder, an entrepreneur and member of Parliament who turned a personal fight against the management of Swissair, the flagship airline that collapsed in 2001, into a nationwide referendum against ‘‘rip-off merchants.’’
Almost 68 percent of Swiss voters backed Minder’s proposals, according to exit polls released Sunday night by Swiss national television.
“I am very proud of the Swiss people, who have sent a very strong signal to the establishment,’’ Minder told Swiss television.
Me, too.
Despite the fact his referendum had been opposed by Switzerland’s main political parties, Minder, an independent, called on all lawmakers to cooperate in swiftly enacting the law.
Nonbinding shareholding votes on executive pay have also been introduced in countries like the United States and Germany, in response to Occupy Wall Street and other movements that have attacked the corporate excesses and abuses that fueled the world financial crisis. On Wednesday, the European Parliament agreed to limit bonuses of bankers to two times their salaries.
Oh, the poor corporate criminals are under attack -- even in the "golden age for corporate profits!" I wish I could be "under attack" in that way!
Minder called for a much broader and tougher clampdown, striking a chord among citizens following the onset of the world financial crisis, which exposed major management failures at the financial giant UBS and other Swiss institutions.
And not just in his country.
See: Swiss bank to cut 1,000 positions
Thanks for helping with the economic recovery.
Minder got an unexpected boost last month when Novartis, the pharmaceutical company — it has major operations in Cambridge, Mass. — agreed to a $78 million severance payout for its departing chairman, Daniel Vasella.
So I guess it was a paltry million more, but who is counting? Thanks for clearing up the inexactitude where there should be none.
That triggered a political storm and intense criticism from some investors, forcing Vasella to tell shareholders last week that his payout had been a mistake.
I'm looking at it more like theft.
Cristina Gaggini, an official from EconomieSuisse, the Swiss business federation, said on Sunday that the business lobby had made some ‘‘major errors’’ in its efforts to stop Minder’s decadelong crusade, adding that the Novartis payout plan had amounted to a turning point.
After that controversy, ‘‘it became impossible to return to a reasonable debate,’’ she said on Swiss national television.
There is nothing reasonable about greedy, criminal money-junkies when so much of the world has suffered at their behest.
Of course, would I expect to find different in the business section of my corporate crapsheet?
Ahead of the vote, EconomieSuisse and Minder’s other opponents warned of dire consequences if the referendum was successful.
Let the capital and cash flight begin.
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I know there has to be something bad about those Swiss people:
"Anarchists gather for Swiss summit" by John Heilprin | Associated Press, August 09, 2012
SAINT-IMIER, Switzerland — It was a well-organized affair, particularly for a bunch of people who bristle at the thought of rigid organization.
And in an era of discontent with debt-riddled government, they offered a striking solution: no government at all.
You know, I've never been an anarchist but the endless servitude of western governments to banks and their military-industrial empires has got be wondering if we might all be better without them.
The International Anarchism Gathering got underway Wednesday in Switzerland’s western Jura mountains.
They flocked by the hundreds, a well-mannered band of fringe thinkers and casually dressed youth aiming to create a world without rulers.
How can you knock it? Look where rulers have led us.
In an era of harsh austerity in Europe, the congress drew libertarians from anarchist movements around the world to celebrate a radically different vision for the future.
Organizers opened the meeting with a call for demonstrations, worker strikes, and other acts of defiance. But they rejected the use of violence.
I applaud the anarchists!
That contrasts with the tactics of Italian anarchists who in the past couple of years have claimed responsibility for shooting a nuclear energy company official and sending letter bombs to embassies and a tax collection agency.
Translation: The Italian anarchists are part of Operation Gladio, and are agent provocateurs to give good people a bad name. I'm sorry, folks, but we've seen this movie before.
‘‘Capitalism goes from crisis to crisis, so this is an opportunity for us,’’ said Aristides Pedraza, one of the main organizers.
Meant to be that way so the wealthy can constantly enrich themselves while impoverishing the rest of us. I mean, isn't that what is happening now?
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At least you've got your guns:
"Three dead in Swiss workplace shooting" by Michael Baehni and Geir Moulson | Associated Press, February 28, 2013
MENZNAU, Switzerland — A longtime employee opened fire at a work site in central Switzerland Wednesday, leaving three people dead, including himself, in the country’s second multiple-fatality shooting in two months, police said.
Seven other people were wounded, six of them seriously, in the shooting at Kronospan, a wood-processing company in the small town of Menznau, police said.
The shooting occurred as Parliament prepares to consider tightening some aspects of Switzerland’s lax gun laws....
Absolutely reeks of an agenda-pushing psy-op or false flag.
Ida Glanzmann-Hunkeler, a Christian Democrat lawmaker who lives near the scene of the shooting, said a proposal would be put before Parliament in the coming weeks that would require greater exchange of information between the gun registries kept by Switzerland’s 26 cantons. Authorities would also record whether a person is considered mentally fit to own a gun, and increase officials’ powers to confiscate weapons if the gun owner is not.
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From your cold dead hand of cocoa?
"Despite slayings, Swiss hold to gun rights" by Steven Erlanger | New York Times, January 04, 2013
PARIS — As much as many Americans, the Swiss love their guns, seeing them as integral to their national traditions of self-reliance, independence, and international neutrality, with a trained and equipped citizen-army capable of deterring any foolish invader.
And not only an invader. The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution after a time of British tyranny. They intended armed citizens to be necessary to prevent the domestic tyranny with which they were quite familiar.
Many Swiss, after serving in the army, keep their service weapons at home, and the country has no national registry for firearms.
Only two years ago, in February 2011, the Swiss handily rejected restrictions on gun ownership in a national referendum.
Those views are unlikely to change soon, even after a mentally imbalanced man allegedly shot and killed three women and wounded two men in the southern Swiss village of Daillon on Wednesday evening.
Was he ON PRESCRIPTION PHARMACEUTICALS?
The gunman, who was known to the authorities but not thought to be dangerous, was wounded by the police as they arrested him and is in intensive care.
The gunman, 33, who was not named, had been placed in a psychiatric ward in 2005, when guns he then owned were taken from him and destroyed, according to Swiss police in the canton of Valais, about 60 miles east of Geneva.
It is not known how he got the firearms used in the killings — including a hunting gun and a Swiss army carbine in use in the first half of the last century, a regional public prosecutor, Catherine Seppey, told a news conference — but guns are easily available in Switzerland.
According to villagers who spoke to local news agencies, the gunman was a local, unemployed, on welfare, getting psychiatric care, and a ward of the court.
And they still couldn't keep him from going off? How is adding more laws going to help?
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Any idea what might have made him sick?
"More than 140 nations adopt treaty to reduce mercury emissions
GENEVA — More than 140 nations Saturday adopted the first legally-binding international treaty aimed at reducing mercury emissions, capping four years of talks to set limits on the use of a highly toxic metal. The treaty was adopted after all-night negotiations, UN environmental officials said. A signing ceremony will be held later this year in Japan, and then 50 nations must ratify it before it comes into force. "
This would make anybody sick:
"Swiss Red Cross cuts blood supply to broke Greece" by Frank Jordans | Associated Press, February 27, 2013
BERLIN — The Swiss Red Cross is slashing its supply of donor blood to Greece because the financially stricken country has failed to pay its bills on time, the head of the group’s transfusion service said....
Greece’s international creditors have demanded the government cut spending on pharmaceutical products as part of bailout agreements....
Literal vampires.
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Also see:
Yeah, now roll up your sleeve for your flu shot.
I gotta tell you, folks, the monied media mouthpiece really $ticks to the me$$age.
