(Wednesday 2nd July) Reacting to the results of the vote for the special resolution on pay at JD Sports at its annual general meeting today, Jeanne Martin, Co-Director of Corporate Engagement said:
“Today’s vote was a warning shot to JD Sports that low pay standards are no longer acceptable to many investors. A third of investors that voted aside from the majority shareholder and owner supported the resolution.
“A business model built on low wages is a risk for the vitality and growth of our UK economy as well as putting a strain on workers and families struggling to make ends meet. What’s more, over two thirds of JD Shoppers in a recent poll said they would stop shopping at the company or think worse of it for not paying all its staff a real Living Wage.
“Investor and customer scrutiny on this isn’t going away, and there is clear appetite for change in the sector from the levels of support we’ve seen in similar resolutions filed at M&S and Next. We now urge these companies to scale up transparency on pay as a step towards guaranteeing all staff a real Living Wage.”
Brett Mandell MBE, individual resolution co-filer and Managing Director at the Living Wage Employer Thomas Kneale said: “I hope this result means JD Sports provides more transparency on pay as a step to paying staff at one of the largest and most successful retailers in the UK a real living wage.
“Having become Living Wage Foundation accredited 10 years ago at Thomas Kneale, our colleagues tell us how important receiving a wage calculated based on the cost of living is to them. This is not just in terms of being able to live a comfortable life, but it significantly lowers mental health related anxieties and worries as well.
“This would be enough of a reason alone to pay the real Living Wage, but it also is good for business. Lower absence and labour turnover rates, increased productivity and customer satisfaction – these all have significant financial and non financial benefits to the company. For us, being a real living wage employer is good for all parties.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
The results for the vote around the resolution were as follows: 13.7% voted in favour and 86.3% against the resolution. Of votes cast outside of JD Sports’ majority stakeholder, Pentland Group, which owns a controlling stake in the company, 34% voted in favour or the resolution and 66% against.
This follows identical resolutions filed at Next and M&S this year, which gained 26.9% and 30.7% of votes in favour respectively.
More information around the resolution can be found here. For more information on the recent polling on JD shoppers please see here.
The Good Work team at ShareAction harnesses the power of shareholders to tackle income inequality and in-work poverty. Our investor group engages some of the biggest publicly owned companies to ensure everyone has access to decent work. This means a guaranteed Living Wage and a secure contract that ensures workers have enough to meet their everyday needs.
ShareAction is working with US-based The Shareholder Commons on a sector-wide “guardrail” approach to investor engagement, encouraging investors to apply minimum standards on pay disclosures to all companies in the retail sector.
