Poverty Footprint Study on how the Coca Cola - Oxfam America

Recommendations for follow-up action
Work collaboratively with local
communities and workers to identify
living wage benchmarks and consider
making living wages a component of
supplier audits.
Find opportunities to improve productivity
that increase wage levels without
extending the workweek.
Consider whether commercial factors
(such as price negotiations) undermine the
ability of business partners to pay a living
wage, and work toward integrating living
wage principles into buying practices,
including rewarding suppliers that pay a
living wage.
Encourage rigorous and regular
monitoring to ensure existing labor
standards are met.
Employ a “wage ladder” to benchmark
progress in wage improvements over time.
Investigate the constraints facing smallscale
retailer and distributor partners
in the Coca-Cola system to identify
opportunities to address economic and
other barriers to successful growth.
Engage with stakeholders to advocate for
improved legal protections, health care
and capacity building and training, for
those in the informal sections of the value
chain, and opportunities to move informal
workers to formal employment.
Empowerment
Empowerment is a difficult concept to measure but
an important dimension of development. Empowered
people participate in the processes that affect their
lives, by voicing their views and influencing decision
making. Empowering people living in poverty is an
essential way to ensure that people benefit from
business-led economic growth.
Individuals working in the informal sector rarely have
an opportunity to organize themselves in order to
advocate for their interests. Sugarcane workers and
independent distributors and retailers in the Coca-
Cola/SABMiller value chain are no exception.
Unions in general have been weakening for a number
of years in both countries, and the researchers for
this study found mixed views among employees at
SABMiller’s bottling plants on how necessary it is
to have a union. Where unionization exists in the
Coca-Cola/SABMiller value chain in these countries,
employees report improved working conditions. In
some cases, where employees are not unionized,
for example, at the Central Izalco sugar mill in El
Salvador, workers still report satisfaction with their
workplace conditions.
Oxfam believes that the lack of formal industrial
relations between workers and management at
various points in the value chain may result in limited
scope for dialogue or collective action to alter policies
and practices, to ensure that labor standards are
properly enforced.
Recommendations for follow-up action
Ensure the rights of freedom of
association and collective bargaining.
Take a deeper look into any cases of failed
factory grievance and dispute resolution
systems and, if appropriate, address
breakdowns with the relevant union of
employee representatives.
Security and stability
Security is essential to ensure the well-being of
people living in poverty.
Physical security is often a risk for sugarcane
harvesters, whose work requires the use of machetes
to cut large stalks of cane. Many sugarcane workers
interviewed in El Salvador reported that they faced
potential safety hazards, including burns and
injuries, on a regular basis. One worker cited a risk
that workers could be poisoned by exposure to the
agricultural chemicals used.
Endemic crime in El Salvador affects people
throughout the value chain. Extortion is common,
and organized gangs routinely intimidate people.
In Zambia, road accidents are a common cause of
death, largely due to poor road quality6 . Independent
truck drivers face potential risks of death or injury
due to working extended hours on hazardous roads.
The study has not attempted to connect how crime
and accidents represent specific risks to the Coca-
Cola/SABMiller value chain or system employees
in particular but has taken a broader, contextual
approach.
Exploring the links between international business and poverty reduction 15