Another crack to increase B+LNZ director fees

Last year B+LNZ levy paying farmers rejected a proposal by the Director Independent Remuneration Committee (DIRC) to lift the chair and director fees by 9% and 11% respectively. At the annual meeting in March 2024, 976 farmers (65.7%) voted against the proposal.

Currently, the chair receives $76,220 while each director pockets $38,110. There’s also a pool of $20,400 set aside for additional work/roles carried out by directors.

This year, the DIRC recommended a 6% rise in the total pool for director fees - from $401,500 to $424,000. This would have raised the chair's fees by 18% to $90,000, a 3% rise in director fee to $39,250 and no change to the discretionary spend pool. However, the B+LNZ board is asking farmers to approve a 4% rise to the total pool - to $417,500. This would represent a fee increase for the chair to $83,320 and for each director to $39,250.

Voting on the B+LNZ remit is underway, and the result will be announced at B+LNZ’s annual meeting in Rotorua on March 26. There are no farmer remits this year. There’s an election for the Western North Island board seat - Scott Gower and Andrew Stewart are standing for election.

In their report to farmers, DIRC members – chair Murray Donald and members Sarah von Dadelszen and Simon Davies, note that in their deliberations, they had considered other similar organisations such as DairyNZ and Federated Farmers.

The DIRC noted that there are two elements to a B+LNZ director role - governance and representation.

Representation includes an expectation by farmers, reinforced at the 2023 annual meeting, of elected directors increasing their visibility with farmers in their communities including the development of annual woolshed meetings, the DIRC says.

“The time commitment for governance and representation continues to be significant and ranges from around 900 hours for the chair and 500-600 hours across farmer directors. Board meeting preparation, travel and attendance, including representation roles are beyond a director meeting time.”

It says they considered the complexity and risk involved in the role.

“While the commercial risks are not high, the complexity of issues addressed in an industry good role requires high calibre of directors and the recognition of personal reputational risks within the farming community.

“When considering benchmarks DIRC carefully considered the director/ governance remuneration of DairyNZ and Federated Farmers as both these organisations have similar representation requirements.”

It noted that the 2023 benchmarking identified that current B+LNZ chair and directors’ remuneration are at the low end of both remuneration benchmarks, and even more so when considered against time commitments.

“It is difficult to benchmark with commercial organisations given the large component of industry good that are included in a B+LNZ director role.

“The chair role is significantly greater than other directors and that this has been taken into account.”