Oxfam Germany has filed a complaint against the two main food retailers in the German country – Edeka and Rewe – for violating, in different ways, the labor rights of their employees in the banana plantations they have in Ecuador and Costa Rica.
After months of investigation, the German NGO found evidence and testimonies that confirmed the labor exploitation of many workers in different farms that also supply Aldi and Lidl. However, the latter are holding conversations with the German institution and the corresponding unions, which is why they have not been officially reported.
On the other hand, Edeka and Rewe have been reported to the responsible authority – the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) – under the Supply Chain Law that came into force at the beginning of 2023. The BAFA could go so far as to impose fines of up to 2% of the companies’ annual turnover.
“We hope that BAFA will give companies concrete instructions and clearly formulate requirements for prevention and corrective actions in case of human rights violations,” they say from Oxfam Germany.
Along these lines, the institution will continue to review compliance with this standard, as well as the actions taken by Aldi and Lidl to confirm whether they are really appropriate to structurally resolve the existing problem.
In the case of Edeka supermarkets, and according to Oxfam Germany, the ASTAC union has documented complaints in two of the farms involved in a sustainable project that the company maintains with WWF.
Among the actions verified by the union include those of falsification of audits, the existence of blacklists with names of people who complained about the conditions and were banned from accessing employment, as well as the development of jobs under “pesticide fog.” . They even collect testimonies about the dismissal of older workers “just before they were entitled to a modest pension.”
The supermarket chain, for its part, denies all the accusations, in addition to having rejected a meeting proposed by the NGO and the investigative union.
Workers at Otisgraf – affiliated with the German fruit importer Dürbeck-GmbHal – claim to have been paid well below the minimum wage or to have been fired after complaining about working conditions.
Another consequence of sharing their discomfort has been receiving insults and intimidation, which women also suffer for the simple reason of being women.
As in previous farms, employees have also seen pesticides being sprayed from airplanes, without having received prior notice.
The Otisgraf company was until recently certified by the Rainforest Alliance, which withdrew its positive audit after learning of the results of the investigation by the ASTAC union. Despite having held talks with the company last August, they have not been resumed.
Now it is the turn of the BAFA to carry out its own investigations and establish guidelines for companies to correct their behavior that goes against human rights.
