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PENSIONS AT WORK EDUCATIONAL TOOLS MEMBER SERVICES CONFERENCES LINKS ARCHIVES |
home » what's new archive » september 20 - september 26, 2004 What's New: September 20 - September 26, 2004 Canada September 23, 2004 - Confusion brewing over surplus pension funds The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in July that Ontario employees should get their fair share of surplus funds when a pension plan undergoes a partial wind-up. Therefore, dozens of employers must calculate how much money they should pay to certain current or former employees affected by layoffs or plan changes that may have occurred many years ago. The size of payments will be a function of the date set for the partial wind-up, how many different partial-wind-up events have occurred over the years, and the investment return earned on surpluses in the meantime. The Ontario Pension Benefits Act calls
for a partial wind-up and the awarding of enhanced benefits to
certain workers at the time of significant corporate restructurings
and layoffs, but does not specify what percentage or number of
employees would trigger this. This creates uncertainty. Most plans
are short of funds due to losses on the stock market and the low
rates of interest. Payments to long-departed employees who worked
all or part of their careers in Ontario could be seen as a threat
to the financial security of current employees, retirees, union
leaders and plan sponsors. September 22, 2004- Statistics Canada finds more women joining pension plans According to Statistics Canada, more
working-women have been covered by registered pension plans in
2002. While the number of women in a registered plan increased
by 2.4% to just fewer than 2.57 million, the number of men in
a similar plan fell 0.1% to 2.96 million. At the end of 2002,
more than 5.52 million workers were covered by more than 14,000
registered pension plans, which means that the number of employers
grew up 1% from a year earlier. However, the growth did not keep
pace with the 4% rise in employment. According to the agency,
women made significant gains in public administration, educational
and health care services, retail trade and finance, insurance
and real estate. September, 2004- Article Review: "A Broader Perspective on Investing and Social Policy" by John A. MacNaughton, C.M., President and Chief Executive Officer of the CPP Investment Board nbsp; In this article, the President of the
CPP Investment Board writes about the recent resolution of the
Canadian Medical Association that calls on the government to prohibit
the CPP Investment Board from investing any of its reserve funds
in tobacco companies. As President of the CPP Investment Board
charged with the responsibility of managing the assets underlying
the pensions of 16 million Canadians, Mr. MacNaughton opposes
the recommended prohibition. The CEO provides background information
about the creation and purpose of CPP Investment Board as well
as its mandate and structure. Although the author says that personally
he has been financial and moral supporter of the cause against
tobacco, as CPP's CEO he is concerned about being able to pay
the pensions promised to its retirees. September, 2004 - SIO calls for far-reaching reforms to protect investors on social and environmental issues The Social Investment Organization has
called on the Ontario government to introduce a wide-ranging set
of reforms to enhance governance and disclosure on social and
environmental issues. The SIO made the recommendations in a brief
to the Finance and Economic Affairs Committee of the Ontario legislature.
The brief calls for enhanced disclosure requirements on social
and environmental issues and a new legal liability system that
would enable investors to sue companies on the basis of their
continuous disclosure statements. Equally, the brief calls for
a national securities regulator, arguing that Canada needs a national
system of regulation and enforcement to keep pace with other jurisdictions
in the world that are developing social and environmental disclosure
and governance rules. United States September 17, 2004 - SEC Asked to Let the Sun Shine on Corporate Political Contributions To address lack of transparency in the
way that corporations contribute to political campaigns, 11 state
and city treasurers and pension funds wrote to the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) asking for the requirement of comprehensive
disclosure of corporate political contributions. Similarly, the
Center for Political Accountability (CPA), a non-profit, non-partisan
organization advocating political contributions transparency,
sent another letter to SEC requesting required disclosure.
September 22, 2004 - Wharton School Hosts First UN Global Compact Academic Conference On September 16 and 17, nearly two hundred researchers and academics gathered at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia for the second instalment of the First UN Global Compact Academic Conference: "Bridging the Gap: Sustainable Environment." The main objective of this two-part conference
- the first portion was held at Sabanci University in Istanbul/Turkey
earlier this year - was to explore new ways of promoting sustainable
production and consumption patterns to alleviate poverty and increase
the quality of life for all people. The Wharton Conference centered
on the business, financial, technological, legal and political
issues that will be needed to ensure the sound implementation
of Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs) and sustainable environmental
strategies globally. September 22, 2004 - U.S. Corporations That Pay No Taxes Still Get Tax Breaks According to Corporate Income Taxes in
the Bush Years, the new report released by Citizens for Tax Justice
(CTJ) and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, nearly
one-third of U.S. largest and most profitable corporations paid
no federal income tax between 2001 and 2003 but still received
billions of dollars in tax rebates. 82 of 275 companies examined
by CTJ enjoyed at least one year in 2001-2003 in which they paid
no federal income taxes yet received billions of dollars in outright
tax rebates. In 2003 alone, 46 of the companies paid no federal
income taxes and in some cases, received tax rebates.
September 20, 2004 - No excuse for non-sustainable transport in urban areas Margot Wallström, U.S. Environment Commissioner,
sustained last week in the Smart Moves for Sustainable Mobility'
conference, that more needs to be done by industry and government
to ensure cleaner transport options in urban areas. Several speakers
agreed in the necessity of greater commitment from industry and
governments to promote sustainable mobility. Government action
was called for in the form of pollution control legislation, tax
incentives, R&D funding and public education. Other methods to
reduce excessive private use of cars include improvement of public
transport and promotion other forms of transport such as cycling. World September 23, 2004 - Socially Responsible Investment Grows in Japan: FTSE4Good Launches New Index Following on the introduction of the
first SRI index by Morningstar Japan last year, FTSE4Good unveils
the second SRI index covering the Japanese market exclusively.
Due to the substantial growth of SRI in Japan recently, FTSE4Good,
the global socially responsible investment index provider, decided
to develop the FTSE4Good Japan Index that was launched last week.
Although the first SRI-related fund was launched in Japan only
five years ago, there are now 11 SRI fund options. 166 companies
conform the FTSE4Good Japan Index. September 24, 2004 - Groups attack EU guidelines European business organisations have
launched an attack on corporate governance guidelines to be issued
by the European Commission next month, since they believe they
would trigger a new "wave of regulation". In letters sent to individual
commissioners as well as EU president, Romano Prodi, the organisations
call on Brussels to drop the proposals. Though not legally binding,
businesses fear the recommendations will form the basis for a
future European corporate governance code to replace national
regimes. September 21, 2004 - African Corporate Sustainability Forum Launched During the Second African Corporate
Citizenship Convention in Johannesburg was launched the Africa
Corporate Sustainability Forum (ACSF), a multi-stakeholder platform
that aims to provide an opportunity for business, government and
broader civil society to discuss and act on corporate sustainability
policy and practice in Africa. One of the Forum's goals is to
facilitate knowledge exchange and research dissemination across
the region and internationally, and to offer opportunities for
training and skills development on corporate sustainability and
other related issues. September 16, 2004 -European Social Forum scheduled for London, 15-17th October Social activists from around the world
are preparing for the third European Social Forum (ESF), which
will take place from 15-17 October in London. The ESF is organized
as a "giant gathering for everyone opposed to war, racism and
corporate power, everyone who wants to see global justice, workers'
rights and a sustainable society". It emerged from the World Social
Forum, which opened in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001. Its first
two gatherings in Florence (2002) and Paris (2003) attracted over
50,000 participants from across Europe and beyond. Reading News Best Practices and Practical Guidance for Mutual Fund Directors - Mutual Funds Directors Forum In July, 2004, the Mutual Fund Directors
Forum, a non-profit membership organization for independent directors
of U.S. registered funds, released this practical guide in order
to provide practical guidance to fund independent directors in
five areas in which director oversight and decision making is
critical for the protection of the shareholders: i) Board review
of management contracts and management fees, ii) soft dollar,
directed brokerage and revenue sharing arrangements, iii) valuation
and pricing, iv) rules of payments, and v) conflicts of interest
between funds and their managers. Pensions & the Companies They Own: New Fiduciary Duties in a Changing Social Environment - Peter D. Kinder, KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. In this report, presented in the American
Enterprise Institute Conference on Socially Responsible Investing
& Pension Funds, held in Washington, D.C. in July, the author
suggest that pensions have avoided social investing and they can
no longer do so. Pensions not only represent the interests of
their beneficiaries but of a much broader group of stakeholders.
Equally, while their primary duties run to their beneficiaries,
they also owe a duty to the entities that established them for
the social good. Kinder's paper explores how pensions may fulfill
that duty. NEW: This week's website! KLD Research & Analytics, Inc 250 Summer Street, 4th Floor KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. is a firm that provides social research for institutional investors and serves institutional clients who wish to integrate social criteria into their investment decisions. To meet the needs of social investors, KLD provides performance benchmarks, corporate accountability research, and consulting services analogous to those provided by financial research service firms. KLD is the creator of SOCRATES, an online social research database, and the KLD Domini 400 SocialSM Index (DS 400 Index), the benchmark for socially screened portfolio performance. KLD has been providing research products and services to the financial services market since 1988.
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