Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) members including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, the TGWU and Oxfam have launched new food manufacturing and retailing industry-wide guidelines on improving working conditions for workers on smallholding farms.
“Many common food items, including tea, coffee and vegetables, are produced on smallholdings,” said an ETI statement, “but the millions of workers world-wide who own or work on them can suffer some of the worst terms and conditions of work. ETI consultations with over 500 smallholders in Kenya showed that workers employed by smallholders - as well as the smallholders themselves - often lack such essentials as drinking water and protective clothing, not to mention a living wage and the right to form and join trade unions.”
The ETI believes that food retailers and supermarkets can make a difference. ETI members have spent three years grappling with tough questions about how to improve the working conditions of smallholders and their workers and have come up with practical guidelines for action: the ETI Smallholders Guidelines: recommendations for working with smallholders.
ETI director Dan Rees said: “Companies that have publicly declared their commitment to sourcing ethically have a responsibility to address the working conditions of people throughout their supply chain - including those at the very margins.”
He added that action is required not just from supermarkets and food retailers, but the whole supply chain: "The entire food industry - not just retailers but suppliers, trade unions and NGOs - must work together to make sure poor workers on smallholding farms don't lose out from global trade. I urge all those involved to put these guidelines to use and so play their part in helping reduce global poverty”.
Supermarkets and retailers are being urged to keep smallholders in their supply chains so they can work with them to improve conditions over time.
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