Worldwide clothing chain C&A is still in the hands of the Dutch Brenninkmeijer family, nearly 140 years after the Brenninkmeijer brothers – Clemens & August – first set up shop. The multinational says it operates strict ethical standards in contracting its manufacturers in country’s like India and Bangladesh. C&A claims its products aren’t tainted by child labour or other forms of exploitation. But it seems it’s easier said than done for the company to keep its hands clean. Recent reports in Dutch daily de Volksrant reveal abuses in an Indian factory that makes clothes for C&A.

Own criteria
In the mid-1990s C&A set up the company SOCAM to monitor its suppliers’ working conditions. But C&A’s watchdog isn’t up to the job, say organisations like the Clean Clothes Campaign and Fair Wear Foundation. They’re pressing for an international system of controls. Currently there’s a myriad of mainly commercial monitors, each applying its own auditing criteria.

Marieke Eyskoot of the Clean Clothes Campaign says the system is flawed. “It makes you wonder about how independent it is if the company that carries out the audit stands to gain from a positive result.”

But C&A stresses that SOCAM is strictly independent. There’s no need for any other inspectors, the chain says, because SOCAM’s monitoring system is extremely thorough. Even sub-sub-contractors get regular checks, says C&A spokesman Jochen Overmeyer: “It delivers the best results for us with regard to auditing our supply chains. With SOCAM, we are able to reach deep into our supply chain with our unannounced visits. We do about a thousand audits of this kind a year.” The visits are unannounced, says C&A, so factories can’t hide abuses from the inspectors.

Trust
But there’s still a big disadvantage to inspectors with links to their client, according to Marieke Eyskoot of the Clean Clothes Campaign: “The key thing is that the inspectors often don’t enjoy the workers’ trust. So they don’t know much about the crucial matters, like wages, and how long you have to work, and how much overtime you do. Whether you have to hand in your passport or if there’s sexual intimidation. They don’t find out these kinds of things.”

According to de Volkskrant, C&A has been selling stock made by a subsidiary of KPR Mill in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. At the factory, 9000 textile workers are kept under lock and key in a walled plant, the paper reports, citing its own investigation. A quarter of their wages are withheld as compulsory ‘bottom drawer’ savings, which they are only allowed to access after three years. And the women have no employment contract or trade union representation.

Cheap
The Swedish clothing chain H&M was also found to be doing business with KPR Mill. H&M has said it will investigate the claims and sever any links with the Indian company. C&A also swiftly denied doing business either with KPR Mill or its subsidiary.

Western consumers are hooked on cheap clothing. If textile workers are to get decent working conditions, cost prices will need to rise by 20 percent, a figure which is eventually quadrupled in the retail price. In other words, C&A could afford to bear the cost of the price hike itself.

Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide