Picture: Sean Spencer/Hull News/Arco
Speaking to SHP, Danny Hobson, Ethical and Quality Improvement Manager at Arco, who works with manufacturing firms to improve employee standards and working conditions, said companies shouldn’t ‘turn a blind eye’.
Hobson said: “Simply withdrawing their business can have extremely detrimental consequences. Instead, organisations should work with the factory to identify the problem and help them to put in place strategies to achieve full compliance.”
The comments come after a Channel 4 Dispatches programme, which highlighted the conditions of factories in Leicester, and claims by the chief executive of retailer New Look, Anders Kristainsen, that the ‘vast majority’ of UK manufacturers failed health and safety standards – and as a result he was using more firms in Asia.
Speaking to The Times, Kristainsen said UK clothing factories were worse than manufacturers in China and the far east.
He said: “The factories we work with (in China) have better standards. The vast majority of all UK factories have issues with health and safety and salaries. They have people on benefits and pay them a couple of pounds an hour.
“We’ve audited so many factories and they just don’t pass.”
Hobson said businesses ‘have a responsibility to ensure they are trading ethically.’
He also said they should ‘establish support mechanisms for vulnerable workers whose basic human rights and livelihood may be compromised, such as children and refugees.’
Hobson has also previously spoken on factories outside of the UK having poor standards, and illustrated the supply chain is a complex issue.
He highlighted the case of Tamil Nadu in India where there is bonded labour and poor factory standards and working conditions.
He has said: “Tamil Nadu is just one example of the international crime of modern day slavery. The workforce is predominantly female and many are regular victims of bonded labour.
“The women millworkers experience many forms of ill treatment, including excessive working hours, poor living conditions in hostels and illness caused by exposure to cotton dust. Withholding wages and paying below minimum wage is common practice, while workers have no access to grievance mechanisms.”
“Many consumers are unaware of the conditions under which the goods they buy have been produced and even when businesses have good intentions, auditing a supply chain with multiple suppliers can be so complex, confidently identifying and eliminating the use of slave labour can present a serious challenge.”
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If clothing factories in Leicester want to supply New Look, it’s their job to raise their game. New Look has audited them and found them wanting both from a health and safety perspective and in terms of ethical trading. I’d be very surprised in New Look hasn’t told them why they’ve failed audits.
I work with a number of factories in the UK and find standards far better than in other parts of the world