International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Washington, wants BankAmerica to stop giving golden handshakes of more than $3 million to departing executives without getting the green light from shareholders. In a shareholder proposal filed Oct. 21, the Teamsters urged the bank's directors to adopt a policy implementing its recommendation.
In a letter to Slomon D. Trujillo, chairman of the bank's compensation committee, accompanying the shareholder proposal, Bartlett Naylor, director of corporate affairs at Teamsters, expressed outrage at the $30 million in severance pay David A. Coulter, the bank's president, stands to collect, despite his role in the bank's more than $1.4 billion losses tied to its loan to D.E. Shaw.
``BankAmerica's breach of trust with shareholders over disclosure of the D.E. Shaw losses calls into question what role executive compensation may have played,'' Mr. Naylor wrote. If Mr. Coulter collects the $30 million, ``this presents the hypothesis that compensation policies of senior BankAmerica executives fail to police against untoward risk at best, and may even serve as an attractive hazard at worst,'' he wrote.
