They sweat, you shopThere is an odd moment when shopping, with which most readers will probably be familiar. It's that second when you're standing in Tesco/Primark/Asda fingering (for example) a £20 sequinned top, and into your head pops the image of an exhausted woman, head bent, sewing on each of those sequins. The glitter of the top dims a little.
You might put it back. Or you might reassure yourself that we are no longer in the Victorian era of labour sweatshops - don't most companies these days sign up to some ethical code or other? - and head for the till.
Well, there is an ethical code. It's called the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). But as the past few months have shown there are serious doubts as to how much this means. In October an undercover investigation for Channel 4 turned up evidence that suppliers for Tesco - one of the ETI's founding members - were using child labour, an allegation that Tesco refutes.
Then last week anti-poverty campaigners at War on Want released a report about the conditions and pay of Bangladeshi workers supplying Asda, Primark (also ETI members) and Tesco. It did not paint a pretty picture. Again, all three companies vigorously defended their ethical position.
Many anti-poverty campaigners have nice things to say about the ETI (although one woman laughs when I mention it and someone else sighs). But there are some serious flaws in the set-up, and these are only going to become more problematic.
The ETI lives and dies by its admirable "base code", a list of fundamental principles such as the right to a living wage (ie, a wage on which you can support yourself and your family), the right to safe, hygienic working conditions and the abhorrence of child labour. But one of the biggest problems is that, although any companies signing up to the ETI must sign up to the base code, they are not committing themselves to living by those principles, only to working towards them. There is a big difference.
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