CHEVRON CORPORATION | Assess Effectiveness of Human Rights Policy Implementation at CHEVRON CORPORATION

Status
Filed
AGM date
Previous AGM date
Proposal number
5
Resolution details
Company ticker
CVX
Lead filer
Franciscan Sisters of Allegany
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Social
ESG sub-theme
  • Human rights
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Energy
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
Resolved: Shareholders request the Board of Directors commission an independent third-party report, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, evaluating how effectively the company implements its Human Rights Policy and other company efforts to prevent, mitigate, and remedy actual and potential human rights impacts of its operations. The third-party should provide an opportunity for civil society and human rights organizations to provide input, and the report should be made public on Chevron?s website.
Supporting statement
Shareholders request that our board take each step necessary so that each voting requirement in our charter and bylaws (that is explicit or implicit due to default to state law) that calls for a greater than simple majority vote be replaced by a requirement for a majority of the votes cast for and against applicable proposals, or a simple majority in compliance with applicable laws. If necessary this means the closest standard to a majority of the votes cast for and against such proposals consistent with applicable laws. This includes making the necessary changes in plain English. Shareholders are willing to pay a premium for shares of companies that have excellent corporate governance. The supermajority voting requirements of Cincinnati Financial have been found to be one of 6 entrenching mechanisms that are negatively related to company performance according to "What Matters in Corporate Governance" by Lucien Bebchuk, Alma Cohen and Allen Ferrell of the Harvard Law School. Supermajority requirements are used to block initiatives supported by most shareowners but opposed by a status quo management. This proposal topic won from 74% to 88% support at Weyerhaeuser, Alcoa, Waste Management, Goldman Sachs, FirstEnergy and Macy's. These votes would have been higher than 74% to 88% if more shareholders had access to independent proxy voting advice. This proposal topic also received overwhelming 98%-support at the 2023 annual meetings of American Airlines (AAL) and The Carlyle Group (CG). The overwhelming shareholder support for this proposal topic at hundreds of major companies raises the question of why Cincinnati Financial has not initiated this proposal topic on its own. It also raises the question that Cincinnati Financial may be overlooking other areas of corporate governess improvement that could easily be adopted to increase shareholder value at virtually no cost.

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