A major UK charity is to investigate factories that supply Littlewoods as a direct result of the retail group’s decision to disband its ethical trading team.
Christian Aid says it has ‘run out of road’ in its campaign to persuade Littlewoods to reverse a decision earlier this year to close its ethical trading department and withdraw from the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), an alliance of companies, non-governmental and trades union organizations that seek to promote ethical trade.
Now it intends to investigate workplace conditions and practices at Littlewoods’ suppliers in certain developing countries.
‘We don’t feel a consumer boycott is the way forward and it’s pretty clear they are determined not to go back on their decision, so if they’re not going to play the line on ethics then we’re going to have to go back to taking an investigative approach and look at their suppliers in developing countries,’ it said.
‘We’d like to believe Littlewoods when they say they can continue ethical monitoring of their supply chain despite disbanding the department, but without any external auditing through the ETI, who knows whether that’s happening?’
Christian Aid said it would begin ‘random testing’ of supplier factories to establish how rigorous Littlewoods’ monitoring actually is.
The charity has been running an e-mail campaign with the help of supporters, urging Littlewoods chief executive Alistair McGeorge to reverse the company’s decision, but says this approach is at a ‘stalemate’. It also recently offered Littlewoods, which has over 200 stores and an extensive catalogue range, the free services of one of its ethical trade experts to help monitor suppliers, but the company has not responded to that offer.
Littlewoods’ decision, taken after a change of ownership at the company, (EP4, issue 10, p3), caused dismay among NGOs and trade unions, which had previously regarded the firm as being in the vanguard of ethical supply chain management.
Littlewoods stated that the changes at the company would not affect its ability to monitor the ethical performance of suppliers. The company failed to provide a further comment.
