Contrary to strict company policy, Gap has discovered that children as young as ten have been forced as virtually slaves to produce the global fashion retailer’s much sought after clothes.

An undercover investigation conducted by The Observer newspaper revealed that children in the Shahpur Jat area of New Delhi had been sold for as little as £10 (1,000 rupees) into bonded labour.  It is not uncommon for children to work 16 hour days for as little as 3p, hand-sewing clothing for Gap Inc intended for Christmas 2007 sales at Gap For Kids’ European and American outlets.

A spokesperson from Gap promised that it would withdraw and destroy tens of thousands of items.  He said: “We take this situation very seriously. All our suppliers and their sub-contractors are required to guarantee that they will not use child labour”.

“It is clear that one of our vendors violated this agreement.  After learning of this situation, we immediately took steps to stop this work order and to prevent the product from ever being sold. “ 

Gap requires garment manufacturers to sign a strict code of conduct governing their behaviour. Last year the retailer stopped working with 23 factories that had violated the code.

Principled positioning

Like many other well-known High Street brands, Gap has been keen to position itself as an ethical brand leader, insisting on socially responsible manufacturing.   Last year the company was involved in a major global advertising campaign for ‘Product Red’, a charitable trust to fund drugs to combat AIDS and other diseases in Africa.

Reacting to the expose, anti-poverty campaign group War On Want appealed for independent regulation of the sector.  According to reports, India employs more than 55 million children aged between five and 14. The UN estimates child labour contributes 20 per cent of the country’s gross national production.  Anti-slavery Save Childhood campaign says, thousands of children receive literally no wages for the first year until they are “trained”.

Child exploitation also affects the world of high fashion. Organisers of London Fashion Week recently called for a ban on children under 16 from the catwalk. Last year Spain took decisive action and banned at least five girls from a major fashion show because they were simply too thin.

Cheap clothes – at what price?

Consumers demand cheaper and cheaper clothing without compromising quality. In the rush to look good and save pounds they often ignore how and where the clothes were made in the first place.  It is a huge business. The value clothing market is worth an estimated £8.5bn and accounts for 25% of clothes bought in the UK.  It is set to outperform the UK clothing market as a whole this year.  Almost a year to the day, The Times reported that export sales to UK fashion houses from Delhi increased by more than 60%.  Last August, the Sunday Times reported that Kate Moss’ Topshop collection was being produced by people paid as little as 22p an hour.  Topshop said it would investigate.

Gap needs to do an awful lot of back-pedaling to reassure consumers that their clothes aren’t just excellent value and great to wear but ethically sound.  Supermarkets and coffee shops have taken the ethical initiative, selling Fairtrade drinks.  The rest of the High Street brand names need to follow suit.  The problem however is that given ever tightening margins, it is incredibly difficult for a retailer not to be lured by the promise of well made, cheaply produced goods whilst also having to micro-manage every sub-contractor on a project.

Equally it is an unfortunate coincidence that this story broke days after it was revealed that Primark toppled Asda as the UK’s most popular value clothing retailer. Retail analyst’s Verdict’s UK Value Clothing Retailer 2007 report predicts that Primark’s share of the market will rise from 14.3% in 2006 to 18.4% in 2007. According to Verdict, Primark and Asda were followed, by Tesco, New Look and TK Maxx.  In all instances, strict working practices are assured to be in place.

If Gap acts promptly and responsibly, what could otherwise become a huge hole in their brand credibility could be reduced to little more than a hiatus in their continuing global expansion into the international world of high glamour which suits every pocket.

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