Activists pushing for the UK’s largest employers to pay their staff the decent real wage say they have sent a powerful message after nearly a sixth of Sainsbury’s shareholders voted in favor of a resolution that would have introduced the policy into the second largest supermarket group in the country.
ShareAction, which garnered the support of investment firms such as Legal & General Investment Management, HSBC, Fidelity International and Coutts, Queen’s Bank, for the resolution, said it was pleased with the outcome even though it was well below the 75% support needed to pass the resolution at Sainsbury’s annual meeting on Thursday.
The campaign group said it was considering targeting similar moves to other companies in the future and would continue to put pressure on shareholder groups.
The decent wage, currently set at £ 11.05 in London and £ 9.90 outside the capital, is calculated each year and overseen by a commission drawn from sectors such as business, academia and the public sector.
Sainsbury’s pays a decent salary to its 171,000 direct employees in more than 1,400 stores in the UK. However, it is not fully credited to the Living Wage Foundation scheme, as this would require the policy to be extended to hired workers such as cleaners and security guards from other companies such as outsourcing specialist Mitie.
Rachel Hargreaves, ShareAction’s campaign manager, said: “Today’s vote sent a powerful message from shareholders that Sainsbury’s should commit to a decent wage for all its employees. Investors have shown they can stand it. wage increases for low wages and they do.
“Equally, we are disappointed that a large proportion of shareholders have chosen to prioritize short-term returns over the real long-term problem: rising inequality in our society. As we address the continuing effects of the cost crisis of life, the conversation about low wages will not go away, and both employers and investors need to intensify. “
Martin Buttle of ShareAction said the intent of the resolution was to “try to move an entire industry, not just a retailer.” He said Sainsbury’s was the target, as it was considered more likely to move than other supermarkets because it had already “taken on a leadership role in other aspects of responsible business and payments”.
Just under 17% of shareholders supported Sainsbury’s resolution. The vast majority followed the advice of Glass Lewis and ISS shareholder advisory groups, as well as Sainsbury’s board, to vote against.
Martin Scicluna, president of Sainsbury’s, thanked investors for their “overwhelming votes of support and confidence.” He defended the retailer’s record at the meeting, saying he was “the world leader in supermarkets in paying the decent wage” and that he had been among the first to raise the store staff salary this year as rising inflation went cause a crisis in the cost of living.
He said Sainsbury’s promised to pay at least the actual decent salary to employees, but did not want to be fully credited with the national scheme, which would link it to decisions made by another organization.
This year, for example, the Fundació Salari Vigència is expected to advance its last increase a month, in October, due to pressure on family finances. “To effectively balance the needs of customers, colleagues, suppliers and shareholders, we must preserve the right to make independent business decisions not determined by a separate body,” Scicluna said.
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ShareAction’s call for change was supported at the meeting by Labor MP Siobhain McDonagh and the Equality Trust.
McDonagh said: “The cost of living crisis is affecting more those on lower wages, including shopkeepers and security guards. I’m supporting [the living wage resolution]. As an organization that recorded a staggering £ 721 million profit in recent months, what possible reason is there to disagree?
A shareholder at the meeting said Sainsbury’s decision to exclude contractors from its guarantee of paying at least the independently verified decent wage meant that his salary was in fact “subsidized by the taxpayer with universal credit,” and they suggested that the company reduce the salary. the CEO of retailer Simon Roberts, who received £ 3.8 million last year, an agreement that “far exceeds the salary of the workforce”.