Sainsbury’s shareholders vote against living wage
Almost a sixth of Sainsbury’s shareholders backed a resolution to extend the living wage to indirectly employed cleaners and security guards yesterday (7 July).
Shareholders of Sainsbury’s voted against a special resolution to commit to paying the so-called real Living Wage to all its workers by July 2023, at its annual general meeting.
The special resolution on Living Wage accreditation received just 16.7% of votes cast and was “overwhelmingly rejected by shareholders”, the company said.
Sainsbury’s, one of Britain’s largest private-sector employers with a workforce of 189,000, had recommended shareholders vote against the resolution.
“We believe very strongly in paying people well for the excellent job they do for our customers every single day,” Martin Scicluna, Chairman of Sainsbury’s, said.
“We also believe that we need to make all business investment decisions independently and that these decisions should not be outsourced to a third party.”
Martin Scicluna, Chairman of Sainsbury’s said: “We are proud to have led the way on colleague pay in our industry for the past five years and to pay our colleagues the living wage regardless of where they work in the country.”
“We would like to thank our shareholders for their overwhelming votes of support and confidence in how Simon and his team are running the business. We believe very strongly in paying people well for the excellent job they do for our customers every single day. We also believe that we need to make all business investment decisions independently and that these decisions should not be outsourced to a third party.”
The real Living Wage was established by the Living Wage Foundation charity and independently calculated by the Resolution Foundation think tank to determine how much workers and their families need to live.
Currently, the real Living Wage is calculated at £11.05 per hour in London and £9.90 in the rest of the United Kingdom. Britain’s main government-mandated minimum wage rate is £9.50 per hour.
