Sainsbury’s: Shareholders vote for ‘survival wage’

Sainsbury’s shareholders will vote in favor of a decision at the annual meeting next month, calling on Britain’s second-largest supermarket chain to commit to paying the so-called survival wage to all its employees by in July 2023.

ShareAction, which specializes in improving corporate behavior, coordinated the preparation of the proposal in March by an alliance of investors, with the participation of Legal & General and Nest, announced today that negotiations with Sainsbury’s are at a dead end, while the decision It is certain that it will be put to a vote at the annual meeting on 7 July.

ShareAction has announced that the first shareholder decision on the first survival wage “will be a real test for the investment environment in Britain, in terms of compliance with the commitments of the environment, society, but also good governance, in order to protect workers from the crisis of ever-increasing cost of living ”.

The actual wage for survival was set by the Living Wage Foundation and calculated independently of the Resolution Foundation think tank, depending on the money needed for the survival of employees and their families.

The salary is currently at ,0 11.05 an hour (€ 12.98 an hour) in London and 90 9.90 (€ 11.53 an hour) for the rest of the UK. This amount of remuneration is comparable to the mandatory commitment of the government to pay an hourly wage of 9.50 pounds (11.07 euros).

More than 10,000 businesses, including Google, have signed up to pay the actual survival wage.

The Bank of England is closely monitoring the agreements to set the level of wages of employees, regarding the risks that the recent rise in inflation to 9%, recording the highest level in the last forty years to be recorded for a long time in the British economy.

ShareAction admits that from May Sainsbury’s will pay the survival wage to all its staff who have a direct employment relationship with it, but will not pay it to those who work with it through contracts, such as staff, as well as security guards.

“The most important thing is that Sainsbury’s has not made any commitment to adjust its real survival wage in the future. This is especially important for us, given the current rate of inflation, with these rates expected to increase. drastically, when they will be calculated again in September. ”

A Sainsbury’s spokesman said it was the first of the largest companies in Britain to pay the survival wage, noting that most of the company’s contractors were paid more than their survival wage.

“In order to effectively weigh the needs of our customers, partners, suppliers and shareholders, we must retain the right to make independent decisions, which are not taken by a foreign body,” he said.

Sainsbury’s advises its shareholders to vote against the decision. The company has a workforce of 189,000, as it is one of the largest private companies in the UK.

Source: Capital

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