Living wage campaigners claim progress after vote at Sainsbury’s AGM

theguardian.com:

Campaigners pushing for Britain’s biggest employers to pay their staff the real living wage claim to have sent a powerful message after almost a sixth of shareholders at Sainsbury’s voted in favour of a resolution that would have introduced the policy at the country’s second largest supermarket group.

ShareAction, which gained support from investment houses including Legal & General Investment Management, HSBC, Fidelity International and Coutts, the Queen’s bank, for the resolution, said it was pleased with the outcome despite falling far short of the 75% backing required to pass the resolution at the Sainsbury’s annual meeting on Thursday.

The campaign group said it was considering targeting similar motions at other businesses in future and would continue to lobby shareholder groups.

The living 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 including business, academia and the public sector.

Sainsbury’s pays the living wage to its 171,000 direct employees across more than 1,400 stores in the UK. However, it is not fully accredited to the Living Wage Foundation’s scheme, as this would require the policy to be extended to contract workers such as cleaners and security guards employed by other companies such as the outsourcing specialist Mitie.

Rachel Hargreaves, a campaign manager at ShareAction, said: “Today’s vote sent a powerful message from shareholders that Sainsbury’s should make a living wage commitment to all of its workers. Investors have shown that they can and do support pay rises for the low paid.

“Equally, we’re disappointed that a large proportion of shareholders chose to prioritise short-term returns over the real