Investors of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) continued to lend their support to a shareholder proposal on freedom of association and collective bargaining during the company’s recent annual general meeting (AGM).
The proposal, put forward by an international coalition of responsible investors representing 3.5-trillion USD in assets under management (AUM), called for Amazon to undergo a third-party assessment reviewing the extent to which it has been living up to its promises to respect international labour standards.
According to Company filings that were published on Friday, approximately 32 per cent of votes were cast in favour of the proposal — the highest level of investor support for any of the 14 shareholder proposals voted on at last Wednesday’s AGM. Accounting for the large number of shares controlled by board member and former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, roughly 37 per cent of independent votes were cast in favour of the proposal.
“Once again, shareholders have sent a clear message to Amazon’s board and management that the Company must do better in delivering on its commitment to workers’ rights,” said Sarah Couturier-Tanoh, Director of Shareholder Advocacy for SHARE, the Shareholder Association for Research and Education, which led the investor coalition behind the proposal.
“Given the widespread support the proposal received, we expect the board to demonstrate — at a minimum — what it is doing to comply with international human rights standards and mitigate the labour-rights related risks shareholders are seeing.”
This vote comes amid a number of recent concerning developments in Amazon’s relationship with its workers. A major British trade union, GMB, recently announced legal action against the Company in the U.K. over allegations of anti-union practices; in the U.S., a federal administrative judge ruled that CEO Andy Jassy violated federal law by making comments on unions.
These developments coincided with a surge in investor support for the shareholder proposal. In addition to the original coalition of 22 cofilers, the proposal was publicly supported in recent weeks by numerous major public funds and asset managers:
- the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)
- the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS)
- the Office of the New York City Comptroller
- the New York State Common Retirement Fund
- Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM)
- Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM).
The proxy advisory firms International Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass-Lewis also backed the proposal, despite management’s opposition.
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For more information about SHARE, visit https://share.ca.
Media contact: Adam Burns, Communications Manager, aburns@share.ca
