Target 1.3: Social protection systems for all
Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
Social protection is a public system financed by governments. The ILO reports that 52.4 percent of the world's population is covered by at least one benefit, with large disparities across income groups. There is, however, a documented corporate political-influence channel. Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart spent more than 200 million dollars on California's Proposition 22 to keep drivers outside employee status and the employer-funded protections that come with it. Owners of platform, retail and staffing companies can press on worker classification, benefit contributions and lobbying disclosure. That lever is helpful at the margin though far from decisive. Governments must build and finance the systems themselves.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
4 campaigns on record
Asked TJX to adopt and publicly disclose a policy letting all employees, part-time and full-time, accrue paid sick leave usable after a reasonable probationary period, with no expiration date or pandemic-only condition.
Result: Not approved at the June 6, 2023 annual meeting, where it was Proposal 7. The certified count was 212,540,477 votes for and 741,089,547 against, with 11,315,069 abstentions and 61,591,217 broker non-votes, which is 22.29 percent of the votes cast for and against and matches the figure the PRI resolution database records. Rothschild & Co Asset Management pre-declared a vote in favour.
No change to TJX's sick leave policy following this vote was found in the sources opened. The same proposal had been put the year before, as Proposal 8 at the 2022 annual meeting, where it drew 327,838,039 for and 642,543,754 against, so support fell between the two years.
Paid sick leave at TJX COMPANIES, INC., PRI Collaboration Platform
Asked each retailer to make the paid sick leave benefit it had offered during the pandemic a permanent policy for all employees.
With Vancity Investment Management Ltd., Portico Benefit Services
Result: Only the CVS proposal is documented to Trillium, and it reached a vote rather than being kept off the ballot. Trillium, with Vancity Investment Management and co-filer Portico Benefit Services, urged CVS shareholders to vote for Item 7, paid sick leave for all employees, at the May 2022 annual meeting; it was not approved, with 255,627,021 votes for and 719,860,486 against, which is 26.2 percent of the votes cast for and against. No paid sick leave proposal reached the 2022 ballot at Target or at Kroger. One did reach TJX's ballot as Proposal 8 and was not approved, 327,838,039 for and 642,543,754 against, but the exempt solicitation for it names Figure 8 Investment Strategies as the proponent, not Trillium.
No company in this group was found to have adopted a permanent paid sick leave policy attributable to this campaign in the sources opened.
Activist investors push retailers to strengthen sick leave policies, Axios
Asked Amazon's board to establish paid sick leave for all employees, arguing the company could afford it.
Result: Filed for the 2022 proxy season and announced in December 2021, with United Church Funds as lead proponent, asking Amazon to establish paid sick leave for all employees. It did not reach the ballot: Amazon's certified Item 5.07 report for the May 25, 2022 annual meeting lists the fifteen shareholder proposals voted on and no paid sick leave proposal is among them. Whether it was withdrawn or omitted is not settled by the documents opened.
No company-wide paid sick leave policy at Amazon attributable to this proposal was found in the sources opened.
Asked each company's board to report on the feasibility of making paid sick leave a standard employee benefit beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
With CtW Investment Group, ICCR members
Result: Announced on 17 December 2020: proposals filed for the 2021 proxy season at seven companies, CVS, Dollar General, Kohl's, Kroger, McDonald's, Walmart and Yum! Brands, asking each board to report on the feasibility of paid sick leave as a standard employee benefit beyond the pandemic. None of the seven reached a vote. The certified Item 5.07 report for every one of those seven annual meetings was read, and no paid sick leave proposal appears among the matters voted on at any of them, so each proposal was withdrawn or omitted before the ballot. The documents opened do not say which of the two happened at which company, or on what terms.
No company in this group was found to have adopted permanent paid sick leave attributable to this campaign in the sources opened. CVS's own 2021 proxy lists paid sick leave for part-time employees among the COVID-19 measures it took through mid-February 2021, and does not tie it to a shareholder proposal.
As Covid Spikes, Investors Press for Paid Sick Leave for Frontline Retail and Food Workers, ICCR
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.