By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : American clothing chain Gap is calling an urgent meeting with its suppliers in the region to prevent child labour after withdrawing clothes allegedly made using child labour in an Indian factory.
“We strictly prohibit the use of child labour. This is a non-negotiable for us – and we are deeply concerned and upset by this allegation,” Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America said in a statement issued in San Francisco.
Referring to a British media report on the use of child labour in India, the company said it was informed earlier this week about an allegation of child labour at an unauthorised facility in India that was working on a single product for GapKids.
An investigation was immediately launched, the company said, claiming that a very small portion of a particular order placed with one of its vendors was apparently subcontracted to an unauthorised agency without the company’s knowledge or approval.
Describing this as a direct violation of the company’s agreement with the vendor under its Code of Vendor Conduct, Hansen said: “As we’ve demonstrated in the past, Gap has a history of addressing challenges like this head-on, and our approach to this situation will be no exception.”
“In 2006, Gap Inc. ceased business with 23 factories due to code violations. We have 90 people located around the world whose job is to ensure compliance with our Code of Vendor Conduct.
“As soon as we were alerted to this situation, we stopped the work order and prevented the product from being sold in stores. While violations of our strict prohibition on child labour in factories that produce product for the company are extremely rare, we have called an urgent meeting with our suppliers in the region to reinforce our policies.
“Gap Inc. has one of the industry’s most comprehensive programmes in place to fight for workers’ rights overseas. We will continue to work with the government, NGOs, trade unions, and other stakeholder organisations in an effort to end the use of child labour,” the statement said.
Gap, which operates more than 3,100 stores in the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Ireland and Japan, did $15.9 billion in sales in 2006.