When Delaware Chief Justice Leo Strine announced that he’d be leaving the bench this fall, Broc speculated that grander things were yet to come. Now, the influential judge is kicking off his “retirement” with a bang – by publishing a proposal that would recommit to “New Deal” concepts. In particular, the proposal focuses on workers’ rights and a reformed shareholder voting/proposal process (e.g. requiring a “say-on-pay” vote only once every 4 years and changing shareholder proposal thresholds).
This isn’t a big surprise given some of Chief Justice Strine’s prior comments. But it’s more comprehensive. And while he doesn’t go as far as Senator Warren’s “Accountable Capitalism Act,” he does comment that companies are “societally chartered institutions” – notable for a Delaware judge! – and proposes requiring “workforce committees” for boards of all large companies (whether public or private). Here’s an excerpt on that point:
To make sure that companies give careful consideration to worker concerns at the board level, the Proposal requires the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Labor, and the National Labor Relations Board to jointly develop rules that would require the boards of companies with more than $1 billion in annual sales to create and maintain a committee focused on workforce concerns. By requiring these committees at all large corporations, not just public corporations, more accountability would be imposed on large private companies, such as those owned by private equity firms, to treat their workforce fairly.
These workforce committees would be focused on addressing fair gain sharing between workers and investors, the workers’ interest in training that assures continued employment, and the workers’ interest in a safe and tolerant workplace. These workforce committees would also consider whether the company uses substitute forms of labor—such as contractors—to fulfill important corporate needs, and whether those contractors pay their workers fairly, provide safe working conditions, and are operating in an ethical way, and are not simply being used to inflate corporate profits at the expense of continuing employment and fair compensation for direct company employees.
Offering a middle-ground between the current system and “codetermination”-style worker representation, the committees would be required to develop and disclose a plan for consulting directly with the company’s workers about important worker matters such as compensation and benefits, opportunities for advancement, and training. Finally, the National Labor Relations Act would be amended to ensure that companies can use dedicated committees to consult with their workers without running afoul of the Act’s prohibition on “dominating” labor organizations, provided that the company doesn’t interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of their rights to collective bargaining and self-organization. In essence, this would allow for European-style “works councils” without impeding union formation and representation.
-Liz Dunshee, TheCorporateCounsel.net October 10, 2019
