Article
Report: Supermarkets and migrant workers’ rights abuses in Spain
Outcomes and next steps
The report lists recommendations, both short-term and long term.
In the short-term, there are a number of immediate steps supermarkets should take:
- Amend supply chain policies to apply workers’ rights requirements to all suppliers rather than only direct suppliers.
- Publish names and addresses of all supplier farms, including those beyond direct suppliers.
- Extend audits (however, see report on the caveat of broader ineffectiveness of audits) to suppliers throughout the supply chain for agricultural produce originating in these regions of Spain, including off-site worker interviews, ensuring that no management is present.
- Publicly report on the results of all audits (again, see report on the caveat of broader ineffectiveness of audits) conducted in the regions, including linking back to farm level.
- Publicly commit to eliminating any commercial or trading practices that could place pressure to cut costs on suppliers or transfer risks to them. For example, contracts should be long-term, predictable and transparent and pricing should be set at an appropriate level for sustainable production costs.
- Publicly commit to factor living wage into price negotiations, as well as contract terms, and set a time-bound timeline towards this.
However, as the report highlights in detail such steps will not be sufficient alone to address the endemic issues in the region.