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As the financial crisis deepens, it raises serious questions regarding the people at the bottom of supply chains who have to cater to the growing global demand for cheaper products. How does the crisis affect them? And who exactly does it affect? Will children be hit the hardest?

A new report by the ILO states that the crisis could push an increasing number of children, particularly girls into child labour. Over the past 3 years, Impactt has found 615 children working in factories around the world, ranging in age from 9 to just short of 16.

Last year we found 21 children at a garment factory in China, most of whom were girls. They had enrolled in a ‘private school’ to learn sewing skills. The school acts as an agent for the factory and routinely takes children there for work.

Their working conditions were appalling. On average, they worked 80-90 hours per week including night time work. They did not have medical checks, health & safety training or even the necessary PPE (personal protective equipment). Their supervisors shouted at them if they made mistakes or worked too slowly. They did not earn minimum wages in standard time and did not get any overtime premiums.

Impactt liaised with the brand, supplier and factory to try and remediate these children in line with the Child Labour Operational Procedures. The aim was to get them out of work and into fully sponsored education while also paying their wages until they reached legal working age. However, in most cases, their parents refused to cooperate because they had doubts about the programme or had been threatened by the factory. In fact, one of the teachers from the sewing school had visited the childrens’ families and warned them against the remediation programme.

In the end, we were able to remediate 1 child. She is now studying computer advertising design at a technical school. Her teachers report she is a diligent student and is making good progress. She lives in the school dormitory and has many friends. At the end of her course, she would like to take up a job in the field of advertising design.

The unfortunate reality is that many brands and retailers probably have child workers at some level in their supply chain. Clean audit reports may inspire confidence that the problem is diminishing, but maybe this just means we need to dig deeper.

And the problem could get worse. As families struggle to make ends meet, there is a great incentive to send children to work. As factories struggle to find cheaper labour, there is a greater incentive to hire children.

What role will brands play in addressing this problem?