The latest on the ongoing media saga … Fines worth millions. Sounds great but in reality will make little difference.
Why ? because Coles the entity will get the fines. That money will come out of the company’s funds. Effectively shareholders will pay .
The real offenders, the executive management team and the directors who over see the development and deployment of these scams, walk away with Millions. We need to penetrate the Corporate legal veil and hold the scammers to account financially. Claw back the money from the exec’s and the directors.
That may well be ..But .. in either case, the real problem is not addressed. The executive payment system, (bonuses based on profitability) incentivises these scams, over and over again.
It was not that long ago that we had the Qantas affair …with fraudulent seat sales for flights that were never going to happen. The entity did not list those seats .The executive management listed them knowing that they were not going to fly. The real solution is to either claw back the money from the executives and ban them from any executive role or jail them . A new type of jail may be the answer.
Its the second time! When paper bags first came out the bags were capable of actually handling the weight of the goods you could fit them . Then both C & W reduced the bag thickness . Now only Aldi has adequate bags. Put them side by side and the difference is obvious. ( by the way this is not a plug for Aldi they are notorious global profit shifters)
Most countries have adopted the American ‘invention’ (for lack of a better word) that companies can take on the characteristics and rights of a person when it is convenient, but do not have the same responsibilities as a person when it is convenient.
It is clearly more complex than that but the standards applied to corporations case-to-case can be difficult to understand or sometimes respect when there seems immunity for decision makers and those responsible for actions taken in the course of corporate ‘behaviour’.
Nah. It’s bigger than the executive bonus system. Every company has an obligation (and a desire) to make a profit regardless of how their executives are remunerated.
This.
Government might hate the idea that fines are just a cost of doing business but, well, fines are just a cost of doing business.
However, there needn’t be a long term issue with this particular case. OK, Coles has got an unknown dollar fine but the judge decided that 12 weeks is the magic number - and that is the number that Coles used to have in their IT systems anyway. So they can revert that patch and avoid future fines, and claw back the current fine over time. And it should be all taken care of. With the disclaimer that the fine hasn’t been determined yet.
If the shareholders see their dividends reduced buy a fine Coles had to pay, I would imagine the next shareholders meeting would call for some disciplinary action to prevent the fines next time.
My wife was severely injured through a company’s negligence. They got a slap on the wrist fine. The company was sold to an affiliate before the court case so no one will pay the fine and no individual has held responsible. Human welfare is secondary to the worship of profit.
Are you a shareholder? Have you attended a shareholders meeting?
It does of course depend on the magnitude of the fine. I make no predictions until we know that - and whether the decision is appealed.
Also, companies allow a safety margin between profit and dividends. Part of the goal of that is that dividends don’t move up and down too wildly. They ideally keep the dividends predictable even as profit will necessarily reduce due to the fine.
