An executive for Victoria’s Secret noted not only that the amount of cotton it buys from Burkina Faso is ‘minimal’, but also emphasises how it takes the child-labour allegations seriously. “They (Bloomberg) describe behaviour contrary to our company’s values and the code of labour and sourcing standards we require all of our suppliers to meet,” Tammy Roberts Myers, vice president of external communications for Victoria’s Secret owner Limited Brands Inc., said in a statement. “Our standards specifically prohibit child labour. We are vigorously engaging with stakeholders to fully investigate this matter.”
In its response, Fairtrade International said that while it strongly disagreed with the Bloomberg claim that paying farmers more for their cotton, as in Fairtrade, encouraged exploitation, it had begun an investigation under its internal Child Protection Policy and Procedures. “Our first and foremost priority is the safety and welfare of impacted children and their communities,” the statement said. “UNPCB is the national organisation for cotton farmers in Burkina Faso comprising hundreds of thousands of farmers, of which only a fraction belong to Fairtrade certified community-level cooperatives. While we cannot as yet confirm whether the child labour case(s) identified by Bloomberg are on Fairtrade certified farms, our Child Protection Policy and Procedures require us to act in the best interest of children who are identified as in need of care through the Fairtrade system.”
Admitting that no person or product certification system could provide a 100% guarantee that a product is free of child labour, Fairtrade International said it guaranteed that if breaches of its requirements on child labour were found, it would take immediate action to protect children, prevent the farms using child labour from selling into the Fairtrade system, and then support the producer organisation to strengthen its own systems and develop child protection policies and procedures.
We’ll take a more in-depth look at this issue in the next issue of Ecotextile News magazine. CLICK HERE to see all the benefits of an annual subscription.
Image: Copyright: Simon Ferrigno.
