Legal influences and their impact on Sainsburys Plc

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Rachel Smith

Legal Influences and their impact

On Sainsbury’s

These are the laws and regulations that affect Sainsbury’s. Examples are; Health and safety laws, e.g. fire exits, keeping aisles clear, Food Hygiene – Safety: certain meats can’t be placed together, hair nets and gloves must be worn, correct storage of food, etc. Manual Handling is another legal influence; this affects jobs where people have heavy loads to carry/move. Unfair competition, employment law, disability, sex discrimination, race relations and consumer rights are amongst others.

Consumer Legislation

I am going to be looking at:

  1. Children and Young Person’s (sale of tobacco etc) order of 2007
  2. Christmas Day Trading Act 2004

Children and Young Person’s (sale of tobacco etc) order of 2007

This order came into force on the 1st October 2007. It changed the legal age of buying tobacco from 16 to 18 years of age. Suppliers of tobacco can no longer claim that the customer ‘looked’ over 18. They must ask for proof of identity, as serving someone under 18 means an offence is committed.

Also, supermarkets cannot say that their staff are ignorant of the law; it is no longer a defence. All staff should be adequately trained and know the law well enough.

Any staff that serves customers below 18 can be prosecuted, as well as the owner. This is a big change as before, the owner would be the only one to take the punishment. They can be also fined up to £2,500.

The supermarkets need to display warning signs in a prominent position. They should be at least A3 in size, with lettering above 36mm high in order for people to take note of it. The signs should state ‘It is illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18’. They must be ‘clearly visible to customers and staff at the point of sale’.

If supermarkets fail to display the signs, they can be fined up to £1000. This also includes vending machines.

Affect on Sainsbury’s and their response

Sainsbury’s were affected, as they had to display the notices and regularly check that they are correct.

In order for all staff to be aware of the law, they must adequately train them. They must also know how to deal with requests, i.e. whether the person is actually of the age 18.

Records will need to be kept in order to refer to. They store information about any training that has been undertaken. It is proof that the supermarket is doing what it should be, and everyone is in the know about the law. If the supermarket is caught selling tobacco to an under 18 year old, the records should mean that they get fined less, as they are trying to implement procedures, and have proof of doing so. There is only so much that the supermarkets can do to prevent it.

The supervisors will have to keep an eye on any new staff, especially younger staff, as they are more vulnerable, and more likely to try to sell tobacco to their friends, for example. This means that they have to spend a lot of time monitoring what they do, and this time could be spent doing other business operations.

The company also need to keep a refused sales log. It is a record of all the people that Sainsbury’s have turned away, when trying to purchase tobacco. The refused sales log shows that their policy is being implemented. If the company said that they had no refused sales whatsoever, the monitoring agencies wouldn’t believe them.

Sainsbury’s will also have to provide guidance of which proof of age cards, ID cards are acceptable. This would probably be included in the training sessions. It is important that the staff are aware of this, as teenagers could get away with forging signatures, or using fake cards for example.

The financial impact on Sainsbury’s is not substantial. There isn’t a need to employ more staff, they just need to be careful and ensure that training sessions are as cost effective as possible. However, they need to minimise the amount of people they sell tobacco to illegally, as they will receive a hefty fine if caught.

Christmas Day Trading Act 2004

Until this legislation came into force, there wasn’t any law that prevented large shops and supermarkets from opening on Christmas Day. It also stops stores from loading or unloading goods on Christmas day.

The act extends the prohibition of shops opening on Christmas day. Originally, the Sunday Trading Act 1994 stated that shops shouldn’t open when Christmas day falls on a Sunday. The Christmas day trading act extends this amount of time to where Christmas falls on any day of the week.

In 1999 and 2000, several companies opened their stores to experiment, including Sainsbury’s. They opened for 6 hours, which is the usual opening time for Sundays.

The law states that any supermarket or store that is above 280-sqm/3000 sq ft in size couldn’t open on Christmas day as they were classed as large.

Affect on Sainsbury’s and their response

Sainsbury’s started to test the customer response to opening their stores on Christmas day. They only opened some stores.

By the time 2004 came, Sainsbury’s decided that they were probably not going to continue Christmas Day trading. This is because of the lack of customer interest. However, over time, customer interest may have increased. This is because customer-buying attitudes usually change over time. The Act has a very minimal impact on Sainsbury’s, as if they were to open on Christmas Day; they wouldn’t receive the profit that they want.

It would be pointless the stores opening for a few customers to visit on Christmas day, as it wouldn’t be profitable. Therefore, you could say that it has given the company a positive financial impact.

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It doesn’t impact Sainsbury’s significantly, as Christmas day is the day when the least people are likely to want to visit a supermarket. Therefore, it wouldn’t matter if they weren’t open on that particular day. Also, if no supermarkets are able to open on Christmas Day, no one is put at a competitive disadvantage.

Employment Legislation

I am going to be looking at:

1. Work and Families Act 2006

2. Age Discrimination Act 2006

Work and Families Act 2006

The act has doubled paid maternity and adoption leave. It has gone from ...

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