11 April 2005

On the eve of Tesco’s announcement of record profits, expected to exceed £2 billion, ActionAid is releasing new research exposing the appalling working conditions of thousands of women workers in South Africa who grow fruit that ends up on Tesco’s shelves.

As the UN is meeting in Geneva to discuss regulations for multinational businesses, ActionAid is calling on the UK and other G8 governments to push for tough laws to safeguard the rights of farm workers in poor countries.

"When you pick up that perfect apple from the supermarket shelf you do not see its rotten core. To make the biggest profits possible, retailers force farm owners to accept less and less for their crops. The farmers cut costs by lowering their workers wages and working conditions. This is not about a boycott. Without tough laws to stop corporate abuse, our fruit will continue to have a bitter taste," says Ruchi Tripathi, head of ActionAid’s food rights campaign.

Tesco is the UK’s biggest buyer of South African fruit. Despite the company’s commitment to corporate social responsibility and the Ethical Trading Initiative (on minimum labour standards) – and the existence of good national laws to protect farm labourers – ActionAid found unacceptable conditions among the temporary labourers interviewed on Tesco accredited farms.

Working with a local South African advocacy group, Women on Farms, ActionAid has investigated the conditions of women working on Tesco-accredited farms in the Western Cape of South Africa. The research revealed that the women:

Receive poverty wages
"I get 378 Rand [£32.50] pay every two weeks. I can’t afford school fees for my daughter or go to school functions or buy school uniforms," says Tawana Fraser, who works as a ‘permanent casual’ labourer on a pear farm that supplies Tesco. The minimum wage in South Africa for two weeks work should be 419 Rand [£36], however, poverty wages are widespread.

Are exposed to pesticides
"They spray pesticides while the women are working in the orchards. We have no gloves or protective clothing and we have to climb wet ladders and pick pears from the trees while they’re still wet from pesticides," says Tawana Fraser. She says that spraying normally happens twice a week and that nobody on the farm wears protective clothing.

Live in dismal housing
"I sleep on the floor on a plastic sheet…there’s no water or electricity and the walls of my shack are made of cardboard," says Gloria Nzama, who finds work intermittently on Tesco-accredited farms. The trend towards more casual employment, in part a result of supermarket buying practices, is seeing thousands of casual workers living in dismal housing conditions in compounds, shanty towns and informal settlements.

Lose out on benefits
"The men get everything – boots, uniforms – all free. Seasonal women workers get nothing. Why must we pay, and the men not?" says Gertruida Boysah, who works all year on a pear farm supplying Tesco. Casual women labourers are often cut out of a range of work benefits. All the casual workers ActionAid interviewed complained they had no access to benefits provided by labour legislation.

Many of these problems are due to the fact that supermarkets squeeze local suppliers on price, set tough technical standards, and demand greater flexibility under ‘just-in-time’ production schedules and increasingly uncertain and volatile trading conditions. In order to stay in profit, farm owners cut wages and lower labour standards.

Over 104,000 workers are employed permanently on around 3,000 fruit farms in South Africa. Tens of thousands of women are now increasingly employed as a ‘reserve army’ of part-time labourers to do contract and informal work to pick and pack the fruit for export. South Africa supplies most of its deciduous fruit (apples, pears, plums and peaches) to Europe. Total exports are valued at close to £86 million a year.

"The women who work on South Africa’s farms are at the bottom of the pile as far as workers’ rights are concerned. Despite the existence of labour laws and voluntary codes of conduct, these women are still subjected a life of unimaginable indignity. They do not earn enough to feed their families, live in dreadful conditions and are exposed to dangerous pesticides," says Quinton Mageza, ActionAid’s South Africa coordinator.

Recommendation:
ActionAid wants the UK government and other G8 countries to push for strong international rules on business and human rights – such as the UN Human Rights Norms for Business being discussed in Geneva this week – to ensure companies like Tesco pay as much attention to people’s rights as to the appearance of their apples.