McDonald’s board will possible face robust questions from shareholders on Thursday at its annual assembly about the way it dealt with the firing of former CEO Steve Easterbrook.

Easterbrook was ousted in November 2019 for having a relationship with an worker in violation of firm insurance policies. The firm fired him with out trigger, which allowed him to stroll away with a severance bundle at the moment valued at as a lot as $56 million.

In August, McDonald’s filed suit against Easterbrook to claw again that bundle, alleging that he lied about having extra relationships with staff. The lawsuit has opened McDonald’s as much as questions and criticism of the board’s unique investigation into Easterbrook, like why the third-party inquiry was wrapped up in per week and why investigators did not test the corporate’s servers for extra proof.

In response, CtW Investment Group, which works with pension funds sponsored by associates of unions, and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer have campaigned in opposition to reelecting the board chairman and chair of the board’s compensation committee. (Stringer, who’s campaigning for New York City mayor, has been accused of sexual assault and harassment, which he has denied.)

The shareholder marketing campaign cites the 2 board members’ roles in firing Easterbrook with out trigger in 2019. And surprisingly, proxy advisory agency Glass Lewis has advisable voting in opposition to reelecting Enrique Hernandez and Richard Lenny, citing related considerations. Rival agency Institutional Shareholder Services mentioned each administrators ought to preserve their positions, nevertheless.

Institutional investor Neuberger Berman said Wednesday that it intends to oppose the reelection of Lenny. The agency holds a 0.33% stake in McDonald’s, in keeping with Factset.

“As chair of the compensation committee, we consider Mr. Lenny didn’t implement the corporate coverage violated by Easterbrook by not making use of termination for trigger remedy for all fairness awards and has set a poor precedent for future issues,” Neuberger Berman mentioned in an announcement disclosing its vote.

Hernandez has been on McDonald’s board since 1996 and was elected chairman in 2016. Lenny has been on the board since 2005 and chaired the compensation committee since May 2019, which means that he performed a key function in Easterbrook’s severance bundle.

McDonald’s, of course, advisable in its proxy filings that shareholders reelect all of its board members. While it is uncommon for shareholders to vote in opposition to the corporate’s personal suggestions, it isn’t utterly unthinkable. Investors are more and more pushing corporations to diversify boards and taking administrators to activity on failures of company governance.

For instance, shareholders rejected Starbucks‘ compensation plan for executives in March, though the decision is nonbinding. Both Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services informed shareholders to vote in opposition to it as a result of the proxy advisors disagreed with Starbucks’ rationale for one-time money bonuses given to former COO Roz Brewer and present CEO Kevin Johnson.

Besides the shareholder marketing campaign, McDonald’s is dealing with pushback elsewhere for the Easterbrook ouster. Teamsters Local 237 Additional Security Fund and two associates have sued the company and board members for the way it dealt with the scenario, alleging that they breached their fiduciary responsibility.

The consideration to the Easterbrook’s and the board’s conduct comes at an ungainly time for McDonald’s. Under the management of present CEO Chris Kempczinski, the corporate has been attempting to rehabilitate its picture and enhance the notion of its tradition. For instance, McDonald’s mentioned that it’s going to require sexual harassment coaching in any respect of its world eating places, beginning in January 2022.

Despite these woes, McDonald’s shares have risen 6% this 12 months, giving it a market worth of $177 billion.