Mumbai: For the second consecutive year, Unilever has frozen the base salaries for executive directors and senior management members globally. It also plans to allow the senior managers to invest 60 percent of their annual cash bonus in company's and receive a corresponding award of performance shares, as per the company's newly coined 'Management Co-Investment Plan', reports Kala Vijayraghavan from the Economic Times. From 2010, the bonus or the variable pay will be subject to a clawback arrangement in the event of a significant downward revision of results. In clawback, the previously given benefits are taken back due to specially arising circumstances. The new plan replaces the existing Share Matching Plan and encourages managers to take a greater financial interest in the performance of the company and the value of Unilever shares over the long term. The proposals, structured as part of Unilever's 'pay for performance' mantra, have been outlined in the company's 2010 annual general meeting notice, and are the outcome of a remuneration committee's findings. The committee reviewed the share-based reward arrangements that apply to executive directors and other executives across Unilever subsidiaries. The changes are being spearheaded by Paul Polman, who took over as the CEO in January 2009. With effect from 2010, the shareholding commitment is being increased from 150 percent to 400 percent base salary of the chief executive and from 150 percent to 300 percent base salary for other executive directors and members of the Unilever executive. Unilever will seek shareholder's approval to ratify the changes. A Unilever spokesperson said, "The proposed new remuneration policy is aimed at supporting Unilever's drive for profitable growth and a level of performance amongst the best of our peers. The wider share ownership, and the revised measures for Global Share Incentive Plan (GSIP), will encourage greater commitment, engagement and alignment with our shareholders." The performance shares will vest after three years, depending on Unilever's performance, continued employment and maintenance of the underlying investment. The vesting of 40 percent of the shares under award has been based on Unilever's relative total shareholder return (TSR) against a comparator group of 20 other companies. Unilever Asia and Africa President Harish Manwani told the ET, "We want to inculcate a performance culture where people should feel rewarded for the results, for what they produce and not for the way they talk or just on account of a good bureaucracy. We want to do away with that and now there is a lot of transparency around in terms of clarity."