Impactt Ltd » Primark-Video http://www.impacttlimited.com Making what’s good for workers, work for business. Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:42:49 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Panorama, Primark, Child Labour and the Alexa Chung factor http://www.impacttlimited.com/2008/06/16/panorama-primark-child-labour-and-the-alexa-chung-factor http://www.impacttlimited.com/2008/06/16/panorama-primark-child-labour-and-the-alexa-chung-factor#comments Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:56:02 +0000 Jonathan Sandars http://www.impacttlimited.com/2008/06/16/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, who have since cancelled all orders from the suppliers in question and have removed the affected products from sale. The suppliers – all based in Southern India – appear to have subcontracted orders to smaller companies and home-working units where children were involved in applying embroidery and sequins to products. As a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative, Primark is committed to the principle that child labour shall not be used in production processes. Primark has taken a unilateral decision to stop sourcing from these suppliers, an approach which Impactt does not support (see our Child Labour Remediation Guidelines); the company has chosen to sever ties with its suppliers rather than working with them to tackle the root of the problem and assist the children involved in returning to education.

This latest news only adds to the pressure on the company’s ethical standards following recent unwanted attention after the cancellation of Alexa Chung’s sweatshop experiment in Covent Garden entitled ‘The Devil Wears Primark’. The programme was cancelled by Channel 4 at very short notice at the beginning of June, leaving many viewers disappointed that a seemingly promising exposé of the garment industry was instead replaced by Without a Paddle – a film about a camping trip.

The child labour issue and the focus of the television documentary coincide with the release of a Primark video on its specially created ethics website ‘Ethical Primark’, which aims to dispel some of the assumptions about the company’s purchasing practices and how it manages to keep its prices so low. Entitled ‘How Do They Do It’ the video talks about the company’s business model – claiming that low margins, no advertising expenditure and economies of scale, rather than compromising on product quality or working conditions, help to keep prices down.

]]> http://www.impacttlimited.com/2008/06/16/panorama-primark-child-labour-and-the-alexa-chung-factor/feed 8