which had not been officially approved by the company. Baffled? Let’s rewind a bit; a subcontractor is hired by and performs work under a contract with a general contractor (in this case, the general contractor is the factory which has been hired by ASOS to create samples and produce the products given to them).
The subcontractor in this case would be another separate factory which has been hired by the general contractor and not by ASOS. Due to this circumstance, it is very, very easy for companies to not know where exactly their clothes are coming from.
When watching the BBC One ‘Panorama Undercover: The Refugees Who Make Our Clothes’ you find out, with actual camera footage, that the ASOS sub-contracted factory (called Hazar) had children as young as ten years old working there. These children claimed that they were only there because they were staying with relatives over the holidays however they have been clearly filmed making and sorting garments. Their excuse of them shadowing their relatives makes it clear that they have been told what to say if anyone asks.
ASOS’ code of conduct states that ‘All workers must be at least 15 years old, or meet the legal minimum age of employment if this is higher’. In this documentary, we can see that this is not being met, however, when ASOS discovered that there were children working under the legal age, they attempted to identify these children and insisted financial support so that they can attend education until of the legal age to work- this action meets their code of conduct.ASOS also found 5 Syrian people working illegally which goes against their code of
conduct which states that the factory must ensure that all employees have a legal right to work. They resolved this issue by organising legal and official work for Syrian adults.
Although ASOS was unaware that this factory was producing clothes for them, and so they were blind to the poor working conditions, child labour and illegal labour which were induced at this factory, it does not mean that it was not their responsibility. Brands are the ones who hold the most money and should therefore go out of their way to regularly check and asses their factories as well as tracking their clothing so that they know where it is coming from. Because employers in factories tend to hide their illegal or child workers, or fix hazards when they know there is an inspection, companies should resolve this by arranging spontaneous and undercover inspections to see what is really happening during the production of their products.
The Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh is just another case where children were in labour, conditions were poor and dangerous hazards were disregarded; this resulted in the tragic death of thousands of workers who were forced and threatened to work even though they knew the conditions were unsafe- companies need to invest more into their factories and always keep their workers in mind; it’s not enough to say ‘we didn’t know’