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Gap, the US clothes retailer, is reducing by half the orders it places with a vendor whose sub-contractor used children to sew garments in squalid conditions in India.
After learning that child labour was being used on its products, Gap promised a $200,000 (£97,000) grant to improve working conditions in India and said it would link up with the Global March Against Child Labour and other groups to provide independent monitoring of hand embroidery and beadwork, which is often carried out in informal settings rather than factories. Grants will be made to establish centres where the work can be done with better supervision.
In addition, Gap will try to recruit retailers worldwide to participate in a forum that will debate child labour next year.
Gap began to worry when The Observer newspaper in London reported that children as young as ten had been sold by their families to an Indian sweatshop. The children said they were sometimes hit with a rubber pipe and forced to work up to 16 hours per day sewing clothes, some of which were for Gap.
The company immediately cut its ties with the sub-contractor responsible for the sweatshop and announced that none of the clothes made there would be sold in its stores. However, Gap did not take immediate action against the supplier that hired the sub-contractor.
Gap’s internal investigation revealed another case in which at least one child was seen working on its products in an unauthorized factory in Delhi. The company said: ‘What happened here was without the knowledge or approval of Gap or, we believe, of the vendor. Nonetheless, we hold ourselves and our vendor fully accountable.’
In this case the company reduced its orders from the vendor by 50 per cent as part of a six-month probation. Gap declined to identify the penalized company, one of its 200 suppliers in India.
The action follows Gap’s decision last year to stop working with 23 factories that fell short of its standards. The company employs 90 full-time inspectors to check conditions at more 2000 factories worldwide.
After learning that child labour was being used on its products, Gap promised a $200,000 (£97,000) grant to improve working conditions in India and said it would link up with the Global March Against Child Labour and other groups to provide independent monitoring of hand embroidery and beadwork, which is often carried out in informal settings rather than factories. Grants will be made to establish centres where the work can be done with better supervision.
In addition, Gap will try to recruit retailers worldwide to participate in a forum that will debate child labour next year.
Gap began to worry when The Observer newspaper in London reported that children as young as ten had been sold by their families to an Indian sweatshop. The children said they were sometimes hit with a rubber pipe and forced to work up to 16 hours per day sewing clothes, some of which were for Gap.
The company immediately cut its ties with the sub-contractor responsible for the sweatshop and announced that none of the clothes made there would be sold in its stores. However, Gap did not take immediate action against the supplier that hired the sub-contractor.
Gap’s internal investigation revealed another case in which at least one child was seen working on its products in an unauthorized factory in Delhi. The company said: ‘What happened here was without the knowledge or approval of Gap or, we believe, of the vendor. Nonetheless, we hold ourselves and our vendor fully accountable.’
In this case the company reduced its orders from the vendor by 50 per cent as part of a six-month probation. Gap declined to identify the penalized company, one of its 200 suppliers in India.
The action follows Gap’s decision last year to stop working with 23 factories that fell short of its standards. The company employs 90 full-time inspectors to check conditions at more 2000 factories worldwide.
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