Sainsbury's refusing applications if living more than 20 miles away

MrSnuggles

I know someone who works for Sainsbury's and lived over 40 miles from the store. The rule is 5 miles there, and he was able to secure a job still by talking to the store manager. The area manager was there at the time, and they allowed him to make an online application, so he went through the online application process and got the job.

Oh yeah, he was in the middle of relocating and relocated by the time he got the job.

Sambucus_Nigra

pineapple wrote: »

As said there is nothing illegal about this policy. Though I suspect that the reasoning behind 'local jobs for local people' is that they know that anyone taking on a low pay job requiring extensive/expensive commuting is either doing it as an emergency stop gap or will tire of it very quickly. I suspect that applicants for senior management posts will have rather more leeway

And it costs to commute and therefore they can pay NMW and not have people moaning about the price of getting to work.

AKA - a sustainability policy.

jadziad

It's a good policy from a business continuity perspective - the further away staff work, the less likely they are to be able to commute when it's snowing heavily or the nearby motorway is closed etc.

getmore4less

LadyMissA wrote: »

Maybe they should promote more British jobs for British people. (awaits backlash)

It was pointed out very early that you have "attitude".

I see you have still not fixed this.

maginot

I think that this is more to do with local government rather than Sainsburys. This policy is the same for Tesco's who opened a new store near me and within their acceptance of gaining planning permission they had to only recruit within the local area (apart from the manager and I think security staff as well were exempt).

This is to ensure that the local community benefit fully from stores opening and not just the drawbacks e.g. Other businesses going bust, increased pollution etc.

bluenoseam

Other thing to think is that Mr J phones in sick, he's due to start in an hour - if Ms P lives 30 miles away it's a reasonable assumption that it can take up to an hour for her to arrive where Ms D lives 2 miles away, she can make it in 10 minutes to cover. I fully applaud Sainsbury's thought process of local jobs for local people though.

Evilm

The other possible reason is they don't want too many people driving in. Whilst I know some people use public transport for jobs over 20 miles away not many will.

Sambucus_Nigra

It's a brilliant policy in so many ways [least of all minimising traffic, pollution, hours spent in travel without even going into the business benefits] - I might email the CEO to congratulate him on it.

scooby088

Think this is a great idea with the cost of fuel, public transport can't really see why the OP is moaning.

pogofish

This used to be very common until what, the 1960s?

Employers would routinely preferentially recruit from specific areas, or from people who lived on/near direct bus routes and in some places the placement of housing developments, industrial estates and the transport links in between to provide a ready source of labour was a particular feature of post-war planning.

I guess it was widespread car ownership that changed all this.

Of course there were always exceptions for people with specific skills - My grandfather faced considerable ire from his workmates when he moved house out of his employer's traditional area but retained his foreman's job, whilst my mother obtained employment with one firm who normally only recruited within five miles on the condition she used and continued to use a direct bus. That requirement only changed when she eventually saved enough to get her own car.

More recently, the local council compelled my employer to introduce a car control/reducing policy as a part of planning conditions for new building and once again, localised recruitment, incentives to use specific buses and getting back into providing staff accommodation were all back on the table.