Exec pensions

There's a bit about exec pensions in today's Observer. This bit rather surprised me:

The big institutional shareholders, who own the bulk of British companies, are becoming increasingly concerned about the size of executive pensions, which are not related to the company's performance.

Are they? If they are concerned they don't seem to be doing much about it. In my experience there is very little investor pressure on executive pensions despite all kinds of wheezes. They haven't even pushed for greater disclosure, despite the obviously patchy reporting. To be honest the Government's tax changes may well kill off exec pension provision, so it might not matter anyway. But let's not kid ourselves that investors have challenged things like differential accrual and contribution rates. It simply hasn't happened, only the unions have really tried to bring about reform.