How can we persuade firms to improve employees’ lives? Here’s what I’ve learned during a decade in workers’ rights…

Rachel Wilshaw Living wage, Private sector, Rights

Oxfam’s workers’ rights expert Rachel Wilshaw shares six insights from her experiences of working with companies to drive progress on decent wages and conditions.

Corona Boom: How supermarkets became pandemic winners while women workers lose out

Rachel Wilshaw Inequality

With nearly 85% of the adult population having received at least one vaccination, UK citizens can look forward to seeing loved ones, having a holiday and going back into the workplace. By contrast, in the countries Oxfam where conducted research in 2020 (Brazil, Thailand, India, Pakistan and South Africa), just 9% had received a Covid jab by late June 2021, …

What did Oxfam learn from talking to workers in food and footwear factories supplying M&S?

Rachel Wilshaw Private sector, Rights

In 2017 M&S asked Oxfam to carry out a ‘gap analysis’ study to ‘better understand the true worker experience and identify the changes we need to make in our own operations and those of our suppliers’ similar to another undertaken by Oxfam together with Unilever. For Oxfam, the project provided a rare opportunity to hear people’s experience of working in food and footwear factories which supply M&S and other retailers.  M&S and Oxfam set …

Three promises Lidl has made to protect its food workers

Rachel Wilshaw Food & livelihoods, Private sector

Supermarkets have become one of the few vital services still functioning during the global Coronavirus pandemic. Supermarket staff deserve great respect for keeping customers safe and supplied with food to sustain us through this unprecedented crisis. But there is another group of frontline food workers doing the same, hidden from view, those who produce the products we are all trying …

German supermarkets commit to tackle low wages

Rachel Wilshaw Inequality, Private sector

Oxfam welcomes the commitment by almost all big German supermarkets to work towards living wages and living incomes for the people who produce the food the retailers sell. Several German retailers, including four of the five biggest supermarkets (Aldi South and North, Kaufland, Lidl and Rewe), published a commitment on 23rd February 2020 aimed at “enabling farming and working families …

4 things Lidl can do to take action on worker exploitation

Rachel Wilshaw Private sector

As part of Oxfam’s Behind the Barcodes campaign, Rachel Wilshaw outlines what Lidl can do to tackle worker exploitation in their supply chains. How many of us have teabags and tinned tomatoes in our cupboards, or spring onions in our fridges? Most people would be horrified to learn that these products and more are tainted with human suffering and exploitation, …

Investors driving better quality jobs

Rachel Wilshaw Agriculture, Inequality, Influencing, Livelihoods, Private sector

Rachel Wilshaw, Oxfam GB’s Ethical Trade Manager, explains why investors are key to improving working conditions in global supply chains. At the World Economic Forum in January, an exchange between Oxfam’s Winnie Byanyima and the CFO of Yahoo went viral. Why? Because it highlights two contrasting views of job creation. For many business leaders, a low unemployment figure is a …

Oxfam and Burberry: Moving ‘beyond audit’ to impact

Rachel Wilshaw General, Influencing, Living wage, Private sector

Engaging with Burberry as a ‘critical friend’ has helped Oxfam to understand barriers and opportunities for better workers’ rights. Rachel Wilshaw describes how collaboration has enabled us to innovate and test solutions together. I first visited Burberry just over five years ago. The glamour pouring from the elegant building, and the giant screen showing the latest catwalk collection, were somewhat daunting. …

Why is Oxfam campaigning against ALDI?

Rachel Wilshaw Food & livelihoods, Inequality, Private sector

When Oxfam scored major supermarkets according to their public policies and practices that prevent human suffering, ALDI came bottom. As part of our #BehindtheBarcodes campaign, Rachel Wilshaw explains why they ranked so low and what can be done to improve it.  Update Since Oxfam started campaigning against ALDI in October, the company has published a human rights policy, appointed a …

What more should supermarkets do to respect workers’ rights in their supply chain?

Rachel Wilshaw Food & livelihoods, Inequality, Private sector

Recently Oxfam has been calling on supermarkets to end the human suffering in their supply chains for the Behind the Barcodes campaign. Here Rachel Wilshaw goes into more detail on the practical actions supermarkets can take and why it’s so important.  Oxfam’s Ripe for Change report highlights hunger and suffering amongst the people who grow and process our food. Across a …