Leading political figures look to curb high pay
One hundred leading progressive figures from across the centre-left, civil society and from all corners of the UK, have called for a new commission which would curb excessive pay.
The campaign for a new High Pay Commission was launched yesterday (August 17th) by left-wing think tank Compass, with the backing of leading figures such as Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable, MP John Cruddas and Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Brendan Barber.
Gavin Hayes, general secretary of Compass, said that the timing of the campaign - one week after the Financial Services Authority (FSA) "failed to take any serious and decisive action" on remuneration – was indicative of a loss of faith in the city watchdog, and questioned mangement skills.
Mr Hayes said that the High Pay Commission, if formed, would be "completely autonomous from the FSA", though the regulator would be invited to give evidence and even be represented on the board.
Mr Barber said: "The growing gap between executive and employee pay has a damaging impact on staff engagement and has created a new class of super-rich that float free from society."
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You'll have to forgive my cynicism but politicians were found, en masse, to be fiddling their expenses, presumably because they felt they were underpaid, yet here they are looking to tell other industries how their pay should be structured. I guess they havn't heard of the expression 'people in glass houses...'
I agree Andrea and in any case this sounds like all words with little action. I can't see how you can practically do this given many companies are global and take their direction from elsewhere.
I heard Alastair Darling on this today and he sounded much lower key on this than the others quoted above particularly regarding pay.
Don't like to be too cynical Andrea but do you think that the expense fiddling would not have happened if they were paid a lot more? The European Parliament is apparently awash with fiddling and fraud.