(Adds details, context about proposals, and quote from
Teamsters official)
BOSTON/NEW YORK May 25 (Reuters) - A majority of Amazon.com
Inc shareholders on Wednesday voted against each of 15
investor-led resolutions that challenged the company's policies
- including its treatment of workers and use of nondisclosure
agreements, an executive said at its annual meeting.
The total number of investor resolutions, including one
introduced at the online meeting, was a record for the retail
and cloud computing giant, as socially minded investors
scrutinize its treatment of workers.
Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky said that a majority
of shares at the meeting were voted against on each shareholder
resolution, but he did not give more specific details on the
vote results, due in coming days. The overall balloting
represented a setback for proponents including unions and civil
rights groups that had hoped to gain more support for reform
ideas.
While the resolutions were non-binding, companies often take
some form of action if they receive backing of 30% to 40% of
votes cast.
Investors backed proposals to approve executive
compensation, to elect the company's director nominees, and for
a stock split.
Marvin Owens, chief engagement officer at Impact Shares, an
issuer of exchange-traded funds that voted for the majority of
the resolutions, said the results suggest Amazon's largest
investors pay more attention to climate and environmental
business matters that are easier to quantify compared with
social problems.
"The largest investors are reverting back to what they see
as areas where there is the most clarity," Owens said.
Said Antoine Argouges, chief executive officer of activist
investor Tulipshare, which had sponsored an unsuccessful call
for an audit of warehouse workers' wages and conditions, said "I
still am trying to get my head around where we failed to
convince other investors that it is the right strategy for the
company to treat these workers better."
Amazon, the second-largest U.S. private employer, has
pressed hard against labor efforts to unionize its workforce.
The upstart Amazon Labor Union scored a win in April when
workers at a Staten Island, N.Y warehouse voted to join the
organization, but then lost a second contest this
month.
At Wednesday's meeting, Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy
Jassy defended the companys record on safety and reviewed steps
it has taken to reduce injury rates ranging from new anti-slip
shoes to software meant to predict and prevent repetitive stress
injuries.
He conceded that injury rates could be affected by the rapid
hiring of new workers during the pandemic, including about
300,000 workers in 2021 alone.
"When you hire a lot of people, your (injury) rates tend to
go up," he said.
Amazon had recommended voting against all the shareholder
resolutions, which came as tech company shareholders push for
more transparency on questions such as pay equity, workplace
culture and safety, and other environmental, social and
governance (ESG) issues. New securities rules have also made the
resolutions easier to bring to a vote.
About 13% of Amazon's voting stock is controlled by company
founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos, raising the bar for
any effort to win a majority of investor support.
(Reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston, Arriana McLymore in New
York and Eva Mathews in Bengaluru
Additional reporting by Simon Jessop in London
Editing by Peter Henderson, Matthew Lewis and Bernard Orr)