"Supplier treatment: why Tesco and other supermarkets should integrate business and ethics", 3 Feb 2016

The actions that large companies take to source their products have direct implications for workers in their supply chains. In the wake of a critical report about Tesco's treatment of its suppliers, Rachel Wilshaw, Oxfam's Ethical Trade Manager, explains why more needs to be done to protect suppliers and the rights of their workers...The pity is, that to the best of my knowledge, Tesco's ethical trade team has recently done more than their mainstream peers in recognising the systemic nature of labour issues and starting to tackle them.//But as in other multinational companies, the corporate social responsibility team lacks the power of those controlling sourcing decisions...The adjudicator's findings point to the need for all supermarkets to integrate business and ethical trade goals into a company-wide sustainability plan in order to give coherent signals to their suppliers about their commercial and ethical requirements, and to report outcomes publicly, so stakeholders can track their performance, rather than having to wait for an ombudsman to expose them...