Introduction

Previous chapters have focused primarily on business and state social policies. This chapter shifts the spotlight onto firms and corporate social policy, through which businesses are able to shape overall levels of social provision within societies. Occupational welfare and corporate community involvement – or to use a more commonly applied nomenclature, corporate social responsibility (CSR) – are of growing importance to governments and service providers keen to meet growing needs and tackle social problems within changing welfare environments. Central government has, as previous chapters have illustrated, tried to increase firm involvement in local services and encourage the expansion of occupational welfare as a way of shifting some of the pressure away from the state and onto employers. Firms have faced new demands for increasing levels of occupational provision and involvement in local partnerships with public services. Despite its growing importance, however, corporate social policy remains a relatively under-researched area. This chapter investigates corporate social policy in both its forms. First it presents an audit of occupational welfare before examining the development of the CSR strategies of some of the largest firms in the UK.

Occupational welfare

Occupational welfare represents an important element of the overall compensation paid to employees, and a significant part of employers’ overall wage costs. Statutory social provision includes: national insurance (NI) contributions as well as the funding and provision of statutory benefits; approved occupational pensions (where companies have provided the option for workers to opt out of state supplementary pension schemes); sickness benefits; maternity leave; and redundancy pay. Non-statutory or voluntary provision makes up a lower proportion of total wage costs and includes: above-statutory occupational and private pension schemes; health insurance; various types of private insurance; educational and training programmes; and housing provision.

The extent of voluntary occupational welfare is determined by a number of factors. Workers often push for increased occupational provision as a top-up to wages and as a form of protection against various social risks (discussed later in this chapter). Firms may make such provisions in order to increase employee productivity, attract more highly skilled workers (Papadakis and Taylor-Gooby, 1987, p 106; Fitzgerald, 1988, pp 12-13; May and Brunsdon, 1994, pp 154-6) or to exert greater controls over labour (Papadakis and Taylor-Gooby, 1987, p 176).