Yesterday ActionAid launched its new Who Pays? report and campaign, exposing how UK supermarket buying practices contribute to poverty wages, dangerous conditions, long hours and insecure jobs for women working on farms and in factories across the developing world.  Our research found:

• In Costa Rica, banana price wars between UK supermarkets have meant that women working on plantations that supply Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s are forced out of regular work into casual piece-rate jobs for lower wages.
• In Bangladesh, young women work for as little as five pence an hour to make clothes for Asda and Tesco while being forced to work long hours, up to 14 hours a day for weeks on end.
• In India, pressure from UK supermarkets to drive down prices has led to an explosion in black market cashew nut processing plants where women earn as little as 30 pence a day and suffer permanent damage to their health through squatting for long periods, and by being exposed to smoke and corrosive acids.

ActionAid is calling on the UK Government to introduce an independent supermarket watchdog that would prevent British supermarkets from abusing their concentrated buying power.  Right now we have a great opportunity for this through the current Competition Commission inquiry into supermarkets.

Join our Who Pays? campaign and send a letter to Competition Commission Chairman Peter Freeman:
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/100480/take_action_now.html

ActionAid’s report ‘Who Pays?: how British supermarkets are keeping women workers in poverty’ can be downloaded here:
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/doc_lib/actionaid_who_pays_report.pdf

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