The SEC today ruled that Shoney's, the Nashville-based restaurant chain, may omit a shareholder proposal on equal employment policies from its proxy because the proposal deals with matters of ordinary business.
After originally fighting investors to omit the proposal from its ballot, the chain recently asked to meet with representatives of the General Board of Pensions and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church, which sponsored the proposal, said Paul M. Neuhauser, counsel to the Methodist fund.
But yesterday, Shoney's again asked the SEC to give it the no-action letter, according to Tim Smith, executive director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of religious investors the United Methodist Church pension fund belongs to. Shoney's officials could not be reached by presstime.
