Oxfam’s final human rights table shows the discounters now ahead of all rivals except Tesco
Supermarkets have once again been ranked by Oxfam on their policies for protecting human rights in the supply chain.
It’s two years since Oxfam last carried out the usually annual exercise, thanks to staff on furlough at the charity. In the meantime, supermarkets have of course also faced pandemic disruption, not to mention Brexit and rocketing inflation.
So how are they doing? And why, with a cost of living crisis putting supply chains under pressure, is Oxfam planning no further scorecards?
Most striking about this fourth and final scorecard, compared with the first in 2018, is improvement across the board, with the average overall score rising from just 11.5% to 47%. This is based on separate scores covering four areas: workers, women, small-scale farmers and transparency.
But there is one exception. Asda split from former parent Walmart last year, as EG Group owners Mohsin Issa and Zuber Issa and private equity firm TDR Capital took control last June. According to Oxfam, which bases the scores on published ethical trading policies, many of Asda’s scores came from Walmart and have yet to be re-established now it is separate.
Asda decline
As a result, not only is it ranked bottom for the first time, it is also the only supermarket whose overall score has fallen, to 9%. In 2020 it scored 29%.
“We’re saying to Asda, you’ve got to strengthen your supplier standards, make it really clear what your labour rights standards are, and make that public,” says Oxfam private sector senior advisor Radhika Sarin.
An Asda spokesman says it is establishing its own responsible sourcing programme following the change of ownership.
“Our ranking in this year’s survey is due to the transition between these two programmes and is not a reflection of our ongoing commitment to protecting the rights and treatment of the people who work within our supply chain.
“We have spoken regularly with Oxfam in recent months to update them on our plans and we are grateful for their feedback which is helping shape our responsible sourcing programme going forward.,” he adds.
Sarin says Oxfam is encouraged by dialogue with Asda, and is treating its 2022 and 2020 scores as incomparable because of the split, but adds: “We have little understanding of its ambition on these issues because it hasn’t published much.”
Morrisons, however, secured a commitment from its new PE owners Clayton Dubilier & Rice that its existing ethical trading framework would remain in place, ahead of the sale in October last year. It is second-to-last on the table, but 33 percentage points ahead of Asda.
“Morrisons’ ethical trade team secured the buy-in from senior leadership and the board,” says Sarin. “They’ve set themselves up for success.”
Also striking about this latest scorecard is the position of the discounters, in second and third place. Having swapped places at the bottom a number of times in previous years, Lidl and Aldi have made dramatic improvements by publishing new policies and commitments and carrying out human rights impact assessments on high-risk supply chains such as avocados from Peru and tea from Kenya.
Sarin believes it is likely both saw an opportunity – an area where they could achieve more than some other supermarkets thanks to their simpler supply chains. And she notes that once decided on a course of action, private companies “can move at pace because they don’t have to convince shareholders”.
Nonetheless, Tesco, with its tens of thousands of products, is top for the fourth time.
“This year they came out with this ground-breaking agreement with the global federation of trade unions, IUF, focusing on how the most vulnerable women workers are able to access gender-sensitive grievance mechanisms, and on increasing women’s representation in the workplace, says Sarin.
“Targets are key – companies are scared to set them because then they have to meet them. And Tesco have put in place a target that by 2025, all their direct suppliers will have 30% of women in management and supervisory positions. They’re going to be working with suppliers to address this.”
It’s one of numerous “ground-breaking” moves that make now the time for Oxfam to look at what’s next, beyond the scorecard, says Sarin. Supermarkets’ progress may have been held up “to some degree” by the pandemic, with some human rights impact assessments stalling, but they now have challenging commitments in place, and Oxfam will next look at how best to ensure those are met.
“Some of this is going to be tricky stuff. Tesco is going to have to figure out why more women are not in these positions in the first place. That is going to unpack systemic issues which will need to be tackled.
“Four years of the scorecard have got some significant shifts from the supermarkets. We’re in a position now where we want to focus on these tough areas of change. We’ll be looking at how best to do that.”
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