Tesco gets a Baracking over labour standards, low wages and animal welfare

Following on from the focus on Primark’s ethical standards over the past couple of weeks, Tesco’s AGM today has meant attention has now turned to the supermarket’s commitment to ethical trade, with pressure being brought to bear on the retailer from several different directions. Perhaps the most high profile Tesco critic of recent weeks is [...]

Comments (1) | More about , , , , , , and
Primark post-mortem?

In response to last night’s BBC Panorama exposing child labour in Primark’s supply chain, the Guardian asks “Is this the end for Primark?” We think reports of Primark’s imminent demise are greatly exaggerated. There certainly didn’t seem to be any lull in business when Impactt went to see the protest organized by War on Want [...]

Comments (2) | More about , , , , , , , and
Panorama, Primark and Labour Standards

Following the news stories last week and speculation in the Ethical Trading community, the BBC is set to show its investigation into the ethical standards of Primark’s supply chain this Monday at 9pm. A potentially controversial trailer is available on YouTube: You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video The footage [...]

Comments (9) | More about , , , , , , , , , and
Panorama, Primark, Child Labour and the Alexa Chung factor

Primark has again attracted the attention of the ethical trading community today after the company’s announcement that it is severing ties with 3 suppliers because of child labour found in their supply chains. Information on the labour standards of some suppliers, gained during the filming of the BBC’s Panorama series, was passed on to the company, [...]

Comments (8) | More about , , , , , , , and
Child Labour in the Egyptian Cotton Industry

In last Sunday’s Observer Magazine’s Special Issue on The Ethical Awards 2008 there was a revealing and well written article on Child Labour in the Egyptian cotton industry.There are an estimated 2.7 million children working in Egypt, the majority, up to 1 million young workers, are in working in agriculture. According to the article, children [...]

Comments (1) | More about , , , , , , and
At last – sensible balanced journalism on ethical trade!! ‘In Business: On the Rack’ programme

At last, a sensible and nuanced programme on the challenges of ethical trade in the garment industry. Radio 4′s ‘In Business‘ programme ‘On the rack’ (broadcast on 12th June, repeated 15th June) is worth a second hearing – a 30-minute whistle-stop tour setting out just how real the problems are, and just how challenging they [...]

Comments (0) | More about , , , , , , , , , , , and
Child labour remediation china World Day Against Child Labour – getting working children back to school, one-by-one

Tomorrow (12th June) is the World Day Against Child Labour, and hundreds of organisations around the world are marking the day with activities to raise awareness that Education is the right response against child labour. Impactt’s report, Progress not Perfection highlighted the increasing incidence of child labour. Over the last couple of years, we have found [...]

Comments (0) | More about , , , and
‘Devil Wears Primark’ pulled off air

Last night Channel 4 pulled the much publicised ‘Devil Wears Primark’ show off air. We are hugely disappointed, as we were eagerly looking forward to the show. We had anticipated some excellent in-factory footage and thought that the use of a mock sweatshop would be an innovative format to spread a hard hitting message on [...]

Comments (5) | More about , , , , and