Gertruida's story

Gertruida Baartman, pictured here, is 40 and a single mother with three children. She earns just 38p per hour as a fruit farm labourer in South Africa. This fruit ends up on Tesco's shelves. Here, she speaks out about pay and conditions.

In 2006, Gertruida courageously came to the Tesco AGM to tell 600 shareholders and CEO Sir Terry Leahy: "I don't get paid enough to feed my children and I have to work with pesticides with my bare hands. I don't get the same wages as other men even if I do the same work."

Gertruida’s stance against Tesco is not without personal risk. On her return to South Africa, Gertruida found that her farm refused to re-hire her for the next season: "I lost my job and the union had to fight with the farmer to get my job back."

After Gertruida’s challenge Tesco committed to independent ethical checks of 150 of the 750 fruit farms supplying them in South Africa, to find out more about the problems faced by farmworkers.

However, this has not yet translated into real changes in many worker’s lives, like earning enough to feed their families properly. Gertruida returned to Tesco’s AGM in 2007 to keep up the pressure.

"I am here again because things haven’t changed in our lives. Our children still go to bed hungry and we use pesticides with our bare hands." Gertruida Baartman, 2007

We will continue to campaign for Tesco, and all UK supermarkets, to ensure real improvements to the lives of women workers like Gertruida in developing countries.

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