28 April 2009

As the Competition Commission today released details of its proposed groceries ombudsman, ActionAid challenged supermarkets to prove their ethical credentials and support the new watchdog.  

Dominic Eagleton, ActionAid Policy Officer, explained that the Commission does not have the power to impose an ombudsman on supermarkets so must ask them to sign up voluntarily.

He said: “Supermarkets who say they have nothing to hide in their treatment of suppliers should support the Commission’s proposal.

“The cost of a watchdog would be the financial equivalent of a flea bite on supermarkets, yet the benefits for women workers in poor countries, consumers in the UK and ultimately retailers themselves would be enormous.”

The ombudsman proposal comes after the Commission’s two-year investigation into supermarket business practices, which found that the grocery giants consistently force excessive risks and unexpected costs onto their suppliers.

Supermarkets source £7m worth of goods every day from developing countries. Yet ActionAid’s research shows that women working for supplier companies in developing countries often bear the cost of UK supermarkets’ drive for high profits, low prices and short turnaround times in the form of poverty wages, long hours and dangerous working conditions.

ActionAid believes that a watchdog would reduce those commercial pressures and give workers the chance of a fair deal.

“With a watchdog in place, British shoppers would be confident that all the food they buy in supermarkets was traded under minimum ethical standards. This is a litmus test that will show the supermarkets’ true ethical colours,” said Dominic Eagleton.