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Safeway results - Workers
- Indicator 3.1
- Indicator 3.2
- Indicator 3.3
- Indicator 3.4
- Overall commentary and examples of good practice
- Supermarket comments
Indicator 3.1
Issue: Corporate commitment to labour standards within the company and in the supply chain
Indicator: Board-level responsibility
Safeway scored full marks for company commitment to labour standards. The structure reflects a comprehensive allocation of resource time to labour standards within the company and to monitoring compliance of the Company Code that is applied to all own-brand products and their associated supply chains.
Indicator 3.2
Issue: Labour standards within the company
Indicator: Remuneration of supermarket employees and conditions of employment
Safeway scored reasonably well for labour standards within the company but lost points for not providing information (which the company considers to be business-sensitive) on labour turnover for some of the questions that would have improved the final score.
Staff working as General Assistants/ Checkout Operators have a good record of staying with the company. Staff set the parameters for their working hours when they join Safeway and some flexibility is available, subject to schedules. Rates of pay are in excess of the National Minimum Wage and the company builds in additional allowances for regional differences.
The range of staff benefits on offer is good although some benefits are dependent on length of service.
Indicator 3.3
Issue: Core labour standards and employee representation
Indicator: UK company employee representation
The company scored very well on the communication of its policies on labour rights and procedures. It scored less well on its structures for consultation with staff which Safeway says are not about pay and conditions.
Similarly, the company does not negotiate over pay (with the exception of some areas of the business such as logistics) although it operates a recognition agreement with USDAW, covering a high proportion of retail staff.
Company provision for staff representatives is good, with paid time off to attend meetings and training courses but company commitment to the role of staff representatives could be improved given the restrictions detailed above.
Indicator 3.4
Issue: Labour standards in the supply chain
Indicator: Existence and application of labour standards code of conduct
Safeway has adopted the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) Base Code for all own-brand products and their associated supply chains since 2000. It became a member of ETI in June 1999. The company’s response to the questionnaire and supporting information supplied is confirmation of the range of good practice it has developed in this area and demonstrates a positive commitment to the Code. Safeway’s 2002/03 CSR Report reinforces this message and confirms its desire to raise awareness within the company, with suppliers and with its customers.
The company trains its buyers and technologists in ethical trading issues and has procedures to review Code compliance by its suppliers. It does not provide any direct financial assistance to help suppliers meet the standards required by the Code.
Monitoring is conducted both internally and through a number of second party independent audits. Assistance of NGOs and trade unions is part of this process. Safeway has a good record of taking significant corrective actions with its suppliers.
Overall commentary and examples of good practice
Safeway’s high score for the Workers’ module demonstrates its firm commitment to labour standards both internally and through its supply chain despite current uncertainty about its future.
In general, the company scored reasonably well on pay and conditions of employment within the company. It lost marks because Safeway says its structures for consultation with staff are not about pay and conditions and the company does not negotiate over pay. Additional marks were lost because the company felt unable to supply some data because of its confidential nature.
The company’s response to the questionnaire and supporting information supplied is confirmation of the range of good practice it has developed for labour standards in the supply chain and for the implementation and monitoring of the ETI Base Code, adopted as its own. The high number of significant corrective actions already achieved is further evidence of this.
Examples of good practice:
- New initiative between Safeway and USDAW to offer Lifelong Learning opportunities for retail staff in Scotland. This gives staff the chance to enrol on courses and enhance their skills, both for personal development and also to gain recognised qualifications.
- Safeway has included toys in the ETI Base Code since 2002, bringing this category into line with the rest of the business.
- Safeway technologists and suppliers are using a “toolkit” to undertake social assessments of first tier suppliers for own brand products. In addition, Safeway has run regional seminars for suppliers on gang labour.
- Safeway is part of the DEFRA Gang Master Working Group that is developing a code of practice for gang masters and is also involved in the ETI initiative.
Areas for improvement:
- Currently, some staff benefits are dependent on length of service rather than being offered on commencement of employment
- Safeway’s commitment to the role of staff representatives could be improved given the restrictions detailed above.
- The ETI Code is currently only applied to own-brand suppliers.
- Safeway has not, as yet, had any social audits verified by a third party.
Supermarket comments
“We are pleased to have received a high score for the Workers module showing our firm commitment to labour standards, particularly in a period of some business uncertainty.
“Safeway’s labour turnover trends have shown continuous improvement over an 18 month period against a rising industry average. Ever since the bid in January and during the resultant uncertainty the figures have remained stable and in line with previous years.
“We are confused about the comments made about core labour rights and employee representation. We do negotiate pay in several areas of the business for example Logistics. Is the premise that negotiated pay deals are better for employees in terms of output than none negotiated? We find the results disappointing as we have a benchmark consultation process across much of the business.
“Some key good practices which we have had recognised externally or have received internal high feedback scores on may not have been noted as part of the report but we feel are worthy of comment:
- We have received Investors In People accreditation across 5 Divisions including Supply Chain and Logistics recognising excellence in communication, training and development and business planning. 5 others including Trading and Technical Operations are currently on the IIP journey – Our People Strategy has been externally recognised by a HR awarding body acknowledging our commitment to labour standards and their impact on business strategy.
- We have won both Regional and National awards for our NVQ provision across the Retail arm of the business and also have an internal standard assessing body supporting this.
- Our Colleague Council structure has been established 2 years ahead of legislative requirement and has been reported as groundbreaking in UK businesses by an external publication in terms of the free flow of information afforded by it.
- Our communication/consultation processes are also supported by processes that are industry benchmarks with video-conference linked meetings for everyone in the business on a monthly basis; our interactive internet question and answer site for all colleagues and our telephone helpdesk are available to all.
- We have also won jointly with our Pensions Team external acknowledgement of our communication strategy on change of pension provision.
- We have also had established for 10 months a programme of training and development modules giving colleagues the opportunity to enhance personal skills across a range of personal and business activities.
“Safeway’s programme on Ethical Trade continues to strengthen as a result of the integration of Ethical Trade into core business processes such as supplier selection, and ongoing supplier management by both technical and commercial teams. A core component of this activity has been a continuing focus on reviewing supplier standards through a combination of social assessments by trained Safeway Technologists and targeted 2nd party audits on selected ‘high risk sites’. Performance has been further enhanced through the appointment of a dedicated co-ordinator for Socially Responsible Sourcing allowing the business to focus on developing approaches to make the implementation of social standards in its supply chains more sustainable. These have included focused workshops for suppliers, and funding the development of SEDEX, an internet-based tool to facilitate the sharing of information related to social standards in its supply chains. Safeway has continued to increase both its direct and indirect spend in this area, establishing Ethical Trade as a major activity for the operational teams supporting the Safeway Brand. We provide indirect assistance in a number of ways including the provision of a social toolkit downloadable from a supplier-facing website, the funding of issue-related workshops for suppliers and through funding 50% of the cost of 2nd party social audits of suppliers’ sites, encouraging suppliers to share the reports with other customers with whom they have trading relationships.”