British, Dutch and German unions yesterday joined forces to demand mandatory, binding votes at company annual meetings on executive pay and public disclosure by institutional investors of their voting records.  The TUC and its Dutch and German equivalents, the FNV and DGB, representing 16m workers, issued a joint appeal to the European commission and their three national governments to enforce greater control over boardroom remuneration.  They also demanded a statutory role for employee representatives in determining executive pay packages. The TUC, which has 1,000 trustees in pension schemes managing pounds 260bn, has been at the forefront of groups demanding rejection of the remuneration report at tomorrow's annual meeting of the HSBC banking group and has been urging fund managers to vote "no" rather than abstain. Brendan Barber, who takes over as general secretary today, said: "We are making the argument to fund managers about transparency and some have said they would be prepared to declare how they have voted. It's only a minority so far and many say it's got nothing to do with us."  He added: "There's clearly a shared concern in Europe that we are in danger of seeing American-style practices introduced here."  The joint appeal said: "Excessive executive pay is now an issue pressing at the very heart of European capitalism. Business legitimacy is being eroded as Europe's citizens are shocked by further examples of this new creed of greed."  The three union bodies said supervisory boards or remuneration committees should be able to limit stock options as well as the scale of overall pay packages.  In Holland, where listed companies have been forced from this year to publish annual remuneration reports, the FNV is considering legal action to end "rewards for failure" by forcing departing executives to return their pay-offs. In Germany the DGB is urging the authorities to enforce public disclosure of individual directors' pay packages.  Mr Barber said European unions were also holding talks with their counterparts in North America where big pension funds such as Calpers had been persuaded to adopt more ethical policies. Classification Language: ENGLISH Subject: EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (94%); WAGES & SALARIES (91%); LABOR UNIONS (90%); MANAGERS & SUPERVISORS (90%); TALKS & MEETINGS (89%); BOARDS OF DIRECTORS (78%); EUROPEAN UNION (77%); EUROPEAN UNION INSTITUTIONS (77%); ETHICS (70%); INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS (70%) Company: EUROPEAN COMMISSION (58%); EUROPEAN COMMISSION (58%) Organization: EUROPEAN COMMISSION (58%); EUROPEAN COMMISSION (58%); EUROPEAN COMMISSION (58%); EUROPEAN COMMISSION (58%) Industry: INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT (90%); MUTUAL FUNDS (78%); PENSION FUNDS (78%); (78%); BANKING & FINANCE (78%) Geographic: EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES (91%); NETHERLANDS (90%); GERMANY (90%); EUROPE (88%); UNITED STATES (79%); NORTH AMERICA (79%)