The Brits have the right idea...!

LONDON, May 19 — Shareholders of GlaxoSmithKline voted today to reject the proposed pay package for the company's chief executive, Dr. Jean-Pierre Garnier, and other top executives.

The vote, by a slim margin of 50.72 percent to 49.28 percent, was the first rejection since a new investor-protection law was enacted in Britain earlier this year requiring executive pay plans to be put to shareholders for a vote.

The component of the pay plan that drew the most criticism was a severance provision that would have entitled Dr. Garnier to $23.7 million in bonus salary and stock if he were to resign or be dismissed any time through 2007; it would also add three years to his age when calculating his pension. Dr. Garnier was paid £2.45 million ($4 million) in 2002.

I love that: adding 3 years to his age! Why not make it 60 years, declare him hypothetically deceased, and cut off the pension all together? With the proceeds of $4 million/year (for how many years?) he'd still be way better off than the tens of thousands of rank-and-file retirees and laid-off workers his American counterparts have hung out to dry with no pensions.

Complete story here.