Irish medical device maker Covidien plc, with a plant in North Haven, says shareholders want to have annual advisory votes, or so called “say on pay,” for their top executives, a regulatory filing shows.
Shareholders met this week at Covidien’s annual meeting and for the first time gave advisory blessing to their top executives’ pay packages for the ensuing year, the 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission says. They also recommended to the company’s board that they be allowed to vote every year on top pay pacts.
The SEC adopted new rules specify that say-on-pay votes required under the Dodd-Frank Act must occur at least once every three years, beginning with annual meetings held after Jan. 21, 2011.
Covidien’s frequency vote was the first step for the company to decide, and then notify the SEC, how often it will hold its say-on-pay voting.
At Tuesday’s annual meeting, shareholders also authorized Covidien to effect a one-for-100 reverse split followed by a 100-for-one forward split of its ordinary shares.
