Major retailers like supermarkets (Tesco, Morrisons, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s) as well as clothes chain, Next, are experiencing a barrage of unwanted and critical attention from shareholder and stakeholder campaigners over the wages of their shopfloor staff. This is having an impact upon the retailers’ businesses in terms of their reputation and sales and comes at a time when the Conservative Government is planning to cut an annual £12 billion from the welfare budget with this week's budget slated to include cuts to the Working Family Tax Credits. Employers are coming under presseure from a variety of quarters to compensate for this via better pay. These include Tories politicians, and the London Mayor, Boris Johnson.
The ‘perfect storm’ of unwanted critical attention results from the companies’ Annual General Meetings being held at a time when the media is more willing to cover stories about pay and conditions. Thus, the continuation of huge gaps between the salaries of their chief executives and shopfloor staff has now been added to by the revelation that the major retailers are, in effect, receiving state subsidies because their staff are on such low pay they have to rely on welfare benefits to survive, and these benefits are about to be cut in the Conservative Government’s first Budget.
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