The Gap’s track record of hiring and failing to properly manage some of the world’s lowest cost clothing manufacturers continues to shame them.
On Sunday the UK’s Observer broke the story that in a New Delhi, India sweatshop factory run by an outsourced manufacturing firm, children as young as 10 were working up to 16 hours a day for no pay. One 10-year-old boy told reporters he was sold to the sweatshop company by his parents.
The Gap said that the “allegations are deeply upsetting.” Until recently, the Gap was well-regarded as a paragon of social responsibility, yet its mismanagement of global suppliers is a long-term problem that has damaged the firm’s reputation.
The company issued a parsing statement soon after the report: “The company noted that a very small portion of a particular order placed with one of its vendors was apparently subcontracted to an unauthorized subcontractor without the company’s knowledge or approval.” The company took pains to point out that it won’t sell the item of clothing that came from the sweatshop or work with that supplier again.
“In 2006, Gap Inc. ceased business with 23 factories due to code violations,” added Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America. “We have 90 people located around the world whose job is to ensure compliance with our Code of Vendor Conduct.”
Gap ownership is under the mistaken impression that spot check-ups to ensure compliance constitute a sufficient counter-measure. But that doesn’t cut it – there are more than 2,000 suppliers to check including 200 in India, according to the company.
Clearly, the Gap needs someone on site at these locations who works for the company – not a third party. And if they can’t put someone on site, full-time, then they should terminate the relationship. And clearly all subcontracting should be banned immediately.
Indefensibly, the Gap had similar problems in 2000, 2004, 2006 and now 2007.
Meanwhile, it was just one month ago that the news broke about the Gap’s lost laptop containing the personal information of 800,000 job applicants. That story died quickly but this one is less likely to go away so soon. Ironically, the Gap used to be one of the best companies to work for in America.
Child labout is a monster which is engulfing the life of innocent children. Here specially in India child labour is a very common crime. One side we have big corportate houses of telecom,currency tradingfinance, IT, and almost in every field we have progressed, still we are not be able to stop child labour completely. These small children working in factories and industries, becuase they must be needy, hungry or forced by their parents or some cruel peoples, who targets them
But this should not be happen, we must stand together to stop this hazard which is going to destroy the future of the kids.