The Business Ethics Blog

Here’s an interesting story from The Guardian: Somerfield gives up on ethics

Britain’s fifth-biggest supermarket chain, Somerfield, has pulled out of the Ethical Trading Initiative, an alliance including unions and retailers that aims to ensure suppliers in developing countries meet basic labour standards.

The move has drawn comments that Somerfield, under its new owners, flamboyant financier Robert Tchenguiz, and venture capital firm Apax Partners, are more concerned about profits than about the fair treatment of workers in poor countries.
…
Somerfield maintained its leaving the ETI would not cause a lowering of ethical standards. The company said: ‘Somerfield was a founder member of the ETI. We remain committed to the principles of an ethical trading policy and have incorporated accepted codes of practice across our business.

The title of the Guardian article is pretty misleading. At the very least, it makes what seems to be a large, unsubstanitated assumption, namely that Somerfield’s withdrawal from the ETI signals a change in the company’s commitment to monitoring & improving labour conditions along its supply chain. But if Somerfield is indeed still committed to that, it’s likely going to need to do something concrete to signal that commitment.

Relevant Links:
Somerfield‘s website
Ethical Trading Initiative‘s own website (Here’s ETI’s official statement on Somerfield’s withdrawal.)
Ethical Trading Initiative (per Wikipedia)
International Labour Organization
Implementing Codes Of Conduct: How Businesses Manage Social Performance In Global Supply Chains (book)