Air carrier ground personnel reported the requirement to use 15 bags to secure DG loaded in the cargo compartment was not being followed.

Narrative

Today I witnessed an aircraft bound for ZZZ on a B737-800 that had Dangerous Goods. To make a long story short; the Dangerous Goods was not secured with 15 bags. At first; I had the Supervisor of the work area over the radio say it's ok that they only had 14 bags and that all they needed was 1 ballast bag to secure and complete the securing. I had to correct the supervisor to ensure we secure it properly. The decision now was made to secure it with ballast. Apparently; all they found was 8 ballast bags. They were going to leave it at that and secure it with 1 bag to make it 8 ballast bags and 1 customer bag to secure the DG (Dangerous Goods). Now the decision changed to just secure it with bags and ultimately the DG was secured with only 13 bags! The Lead; the supervisor; and I all confirmed with Load Planning that the 13 bags was OK and enough to secure the DG. What gives Load Planning the authority to take this kind of shortcut and the rest of the workforce cannot make this exception? Why have a policy at all regarding the safety of flight that will be disregarded for the sake of an on-time departure or just to get the flight out? Policy states we cannot mix ballast and bags when securing Dangerous Goods. We can only mix mail and bags to total 450lbs.