Not in this together: how supermarkets became the pandemic’s winners while women workers are losing out

Supermarkets driving growing inequality

Inequality is worsening and exploitation of women is endemic across the global economy. While inequality of power and value was already deeply unfair before the pandemic, it has now reached shocking proportions. COVID-19 has cost global workers $3.7 trillion in lost income, and women and young workers have been hardest hit, as they are often found in the most insecure and lowest-paid jobs. Few places reveal this trend more clearly than supermarket supply chains.

In stark contrast to the escalating human misery brought by the pandemic, the supermarket sector has largely been the standout winner of the crisis. Senior executives, the largest institutional investors, and mostly wealthy shareholders  of global supermarkets continue to be rewarded with ‘business-as-usual’ high compensation and dividends.

In fact, during the pandemic, publicly listed supermarkets distributed 98% of net profits to their shareholders via dividends and share buybacks. Meanwhile, workers and producers, especially women, across the globe – the people we call ‘essential’ or ‘frontline’ workers – have seen their incomes stagnate or even fall, while their rights continue to be violated.

Costs related to COVID-19 reported by the supermarkets pale in comparison to their additional revenues gained and increased shareholder payouts during the pandemic. Few have taken the opportunity to invest in longer-term supply chain improvements to benefit the food producers and workers experiencing extreme hardship due to the pandemic.

Women hit the hardest

Exploitation, gender discrimination and inequality in global food supply chains have been widely documented but remain largely unaddressed by supermarkets.

Oxfam’s new research highlights critical issues that supermarkets must address:

Violation of workers’ rights is evident across multiple food supply chains in different regions

Between November 2020 and February 2021 Oxfam conducted new research on working conditions in the production of coffee in Brazil, basmati rice in Pakistan and wine in South Africa, and updated earlier research on Assam tea production in India and seafood production in Thailand. Most workers and farmers interviewed by Oxfam and partners do not earn a living income or wage, and some do not even earn a monthly minimum wage. In Brazilian coffee production, slavery-like working conditions reported on Brazil’s official Dirty List to combat slavery could be linked to many supermarkets’ supply chains.

Extractive business model

New research shows that the unfair distribution of value across supermarkets’ high-risk supply chains persists.

Women’s rights violations in supermarket supply chains are pervasive and systemic.

COVID-19 has exacerbated existing structural gender inequalities and made the situation even more dire for women workers and farmers. Oxfam’s research reveals evidence that women workers – who were already earning less – have lost more income than men during the pandemic. Women workers have effectively acted as shock absorbers during the pandemic and will end up worse off, while at the other end of the supply chain, companies and shareholders have continued to prosper.

Until now, supermarkets have failed to take adequate action to address the abuse of labour rights experienced by women in supply chains. Transparency is greatly lacking: of the retailers featuring in Oxfam’s global Supermarket Scorecard, only Tesco has published a gender policy, detailing the actions it will take to improve the position of women in four high-risk supply chains. None of the supermarkets are tracking and disclosing gender-disaggregated data.