UK firms slammed over sweatshop report
Monday, 03 Sep 2007 10:09
British retailers have pledged to crack down on illegal working conditions in factories
Sweatshop workers in India are being paid 13p an hour to produce clothes sold on Britain's high streets, a new report has claimed.
According to the Guardian factories used by retailers such as Primark, Mothercare and Gap are failing to meet international labour standards through the treatment of workers in Bangalore factories.
One such factory that supplies clothes to UK outlets, Gokaldas Export, admitted to the newspaper that it paid employees £1.13 for a nine-hour day.
The claims follow a similar report from the Guardian in July accusing British retailers of failing to ensure the proper treatment of factory workers in Bangladesh and meet Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) standards.
According to the newspaper, the sweatshops' mostly female workforce are regularly bullied by their male managers and denied leave for ill health.
"When we speak to the workers, they tell us all they want is to be treated like human beings," commented KP Gopinath, the director of Indian workers' rights group Cividep.
"They need a living wage to live in dignity, to get running water, to get a better education for their children."
Primark insists that it is dedicated to ensuring its suppliers "provide a safe and clean working environment, to pay a living wage, not to impose excessive working hours, and not to use child labour".
Gap acknowledged that it was aware of "compliance violations at factories in the Indian subcontinent region" and pledged to address complaints.
A spokesperson for Mothercare meanwhile emphasised that the factories cited in the Guardian report did not supply any of its clothes.
The representative admitted that the report had raised "serious issues" and revealed that the firm had launched a further audit of two of the factories it used in India to double check ETI standards were being met.