And more nonsense from the left.. It is flowing like an open sewer tonight. Force companies to have 3 female directors or face delisting: Teachers Janet McFarland The Globe and Mail Monday, Oct. 07 2013 The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is urging the province’s securities regulator to require all public companies have at least three women on their boards, or else risk being delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange. Teachers outlines the proposal in a letter submitted to the Ontario Securities Commission in response to its call for comments on a possible new “comply or explain” disclosure rule to boost the number of women on boards. The OSC proposal would require companies to report annually on their efforts to improve board diversity or else explain why they have opted not to make the disclosure. The pension fund, which manages $130-billion on behalf of Ontario teachers, said the OSC’s proposed voluntary standard is unlikely to cause much change and needs to be far tougher. “We are not convinced that a comply-or-explain regime provides enough incentive for companies to act,” Teachers’ said in its letter, which is signed by senior vice-president Wayne Kozun. Mr. Kozun said Britain introduced a similar regime in 2011 and is now threatening to transform it into a mandatory quota because growth in women on boards has stagnated after an initial increase. A U.K. report released Monday shows the number of women on the board’s of Britain’s 250 largest companies has climbed to 14.9 per cent, from 7.8 per cent in 2011. Women account for 19 per cent of directors of FTSE100 companies. Teachers’ also cited the example of Norway, which said in 2003 it would impose a mandatory 40 per cent quota for women on boards by 2006 unless companies voluntarily met the target before then, in which case the legal changes would not come into effect. By 2006, however, women accounted for only 18 per cent of board members, so the mandatory quota was imposed. “It is our view that without the implementation of a quota and the threat of sanctions, Norway would not have met their board gender diversity target,” Mr. Kozun said in the submission. Teachers proposes that boards should be required to have a minimum of three women, saying the number is “rooted in the belief that board diversity yields more effective boards and better results for shareholders” and said research shows that three women on a board is a minimum level for a board to substantially benefit from diversity. The pension fund said there must be sanctions for non-compliance or else the rule will not lead to significant change. As a result, Teachers said the most appropriate sanction would be a TSX requirement to have three women on the board or else face delisting from the exchange. The letter also said companies should have a phase-in period to implement the change, suggesting companies should face delisting in 2020 if they have not reached the threshold of three women. Teachers also said it believes gender diversity is just a first step to getting more diversity on boards, and it should be the catalyst that leads to other types of broader diversity. The OSC has posted over 60 comment letters to its proposal as of Friday, many of them from companies, corporate directors and advocacy groups supporting the comply-or-explain proposal.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 01:16:24 +0000
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