Women working in global supply chains: are retailers trading away workers’ rights?

In today’s global economy, supermarkets and clothing stores are sourcing their products from farms and factories worldwide. Workers at the end of these supply chains – who pick and pack fruit, sew garments and cut flowers – are mostly women. Their work is fuelling valuable national export growth and could be providing the income to lift them and their families out of poverty. Instead, women workers are being denied their fair share of the benefits of globalisation.

A report from Oxfam International reveals how big brand companies and retailers are driving down employment conditions for women workers. Globalisation has greatly strengthened the negotiating hand of companies such as Wal-Mart and Tesco while eroding workers’ rights. The short-term advantage of increased trade comes at the risk of long-term costs to society.

Huge retailers exploit their position at the top of global supply chains to squeeze their suppliers to deliver. This pressure is passed down to women workers in the form of ever-longer hours at faster work rates, often in poor conditions and with no job security.

There is a widening gap between talk of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business reality. Although many corporations have codes of conduct to hold their suppliers accountable for labour standards, their own ruthless buying strategies often make it impossible for these standards to be met. Buyers exert massive pressure on suppliers to deliver ‘just-in-time’ orders at lower prices – thus encouraging factory managers to hire workers on short-term, insecure contracts.

Globalisation has resulted in gradual but fundamental shifts in who will gain from trade. The benefits of flexibility for companies at the top of global supply chains have come at the cost of precarious employment for those at the bottom. Unless workers’ rights are protected in export-oriented employment, trade will fall far short of its potential for poverty reduction and gender equality.

The report finds that:

• In Chile 75% of women fruit-pickers are now on temporary contracts: although they work 60 hours per week in season, one in three earns the minimum wage or less.
• UK employers are legally entitled to pay home-workers 80% of the minimum wage and without redundancy, holiday, sick pay or pension rights.
• Fewer than half the women in Bangladesh garment factories have a contract.
• In China’s garment factories young women face 150 hours of overtime each month and only 10% have access to social insurance.
• Many governments – encouraged by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) – pursue laws and trade agreements that allow for greater flexibility of labour, fuelling competition between countries to provide the most flexible workforce.

Trade can work for women workers, their families and communities. A job in a garment factory or on a fruit farm can provide a woman with income, security and support to become empowered in her household and community. To realise this potential,

Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair campaign calls on:

• Companies to put respect for labour rights at the heart of supply-chain business strategies by addressing the impacts of their sourcing and purchasing practices on the way that producers hire and treat their workers.
• Producers and suppliers to respect workers’ rights to join trade unions and bargain collectively.
• Governments to enforce international labour standards.
• The IMF and World Bank to accept that promotion of workers’ rights is a fundamental tool for poverty reduction and greater gender equality.
• Shareholders and pension funds to use their power in investment markets to promote ethical supply-chain practices.
• Consumers to insist that retailers and brands ensure that their sourcing and purchasing practices support workers’ rights.

Source(s):
‘Trading away our rights: women working in global supply chains’ by Kate Raworth, Oxfam International, January 2004 Full document.

Funded by: Oxfam International

id21 Research Highlight: 30 April 2004

Further Information:
Kate Raworth
Oxfam GB
274 Banbury Road
Oxford OX2 7DZ
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1865 312034
Fax: +44 (0) 1865 312245
Contact the contributor: kraworth@oxfam.org.uk

Oxfam GB

Other related links:
'Richer or Poorer? Achievements and challenges for ethical trade'

'Caring corporations? Business and social responsibility in Indonesia'

Article on fair trade and supply chains from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre

'Strengthening Implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Supply Chains'

Make Trade Fair