Investors in Amazon.com Inc. have filed at least 14 shareholder resolutions on a variety of environmental, social and governance issues ahead of the company's annual meeting in May.
Members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a shareholder advocacy coalition, have filed 12 resolutions that range in topic from executive compensation and diversity goals, lobbying disclosuresa nd facial recognition technology to gender and racial pay equity.
To date, Amazon has filed challenges with the Securities and Exchange Commission on six of the 12 ICCR resolutions, seeking permission to omit the resolutions from its proxy statement.
Last year, the same group of investors submitted nine proposals. Shareholder support for many of the proposals was in the 20% to 25% range, according to ICCR.
Amazon is challenging the executive compensation and diversity goals resolution, which seeks the board compensation committee to prepare a report assessing the feasibility of "integrating sustainability metrics, including metrics regarding diversity among senior executives, into performance measures or vesting conditions that may apply to senior executives under the company's compensation plans or arrangements." Amazon, in its challenge, said it has already substantially implemented such reporting.
The AFL-CIO filed a resolution seeking an independent board chair at Amazon. Currently, Amazon's Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos also serves as board chair. In its resolution, the AFL-CIO said, "oversight of management can be diminished when the board chair is not an independent director." A similar proposal last year garnered 24% support.
"The proponents believe that their proposals are appropriate under the 14a-8 rules governing the process and therefore should make it to the proxy, and stress that, rather than attempting to silence shareholder voices, the proposals should be seen by Amazon management as an opportunity to receive constructive, solutions-oriented feedback from stakeholders concerned about the long-term sustainability of the company," ICCR said Tuesday in a news release.
A representative from Amazon could not immediately be reached for comment.
An official date for Amazon's annual meeting has yet to be made public, but Susana McDermott, director of communications for ICCR, noted it will be in May.
