'Extreme' Pay for Departing CEO Could Have Been Prevented

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Laborers' Union
 Wednesday called on Home Depot Inc. to adopt a proposal filed by its
 Massachusetts Laborers Pension Fund requiring that the board get
 shareholder approval for extraordinary retirement benefits.
     An identical proposal filed by a Laborers' Union fund last year
 received nearly a majority of shares.
     It was reported Wednesday that Home Depot Chairman and CEO Bob Nardelli
 will leave the struggling company and receive a $210 million severance
 package.
     "Had the Home Depot Board adopted our proposal before hiring Mr.
 Nardelli, shareholders would have been able to vote down such extreme and
 obscene benefits," said Laborers' Union General President Terence M.
 O'Sullivan. "The board can prevent another Nardelli and adopt this proposal
 now, protecting the company and its shareholders."
     Trustees of the union's pension fund believe that extraordinary
 benefits for officers should be submitted for approval by shareholders. In
 its proposal to Home Depot, the fund calls for a cap on the amount that can
 be offered to executives in supplemental retirement plans and for bonus pay
 to be excluded in calculations on how much an executive is due.
     Unlike Nardelli, rank and file Home Depot workers receive no extreme
 benefit plans.
     "As long-term shareholders of Home Depot, we believe that the board has
 an obligation to be responsive on this issue and make changes to
 compensation practices so that shareholders are not faced with similar
 windfalls for future departing executives," O'Sullivan said.
     The Laborers' Union, with pension funds holding about $30 billion, is
 on the forefront of corporate accountability reform.
 
 

SOURCE Laborers' International Union of North America