A women’s rights charity that printed a large quantity of pro-feminism t-shirts that were worn by the likes of Ed Miliband and Harriet Harman has defended itself after a Mail on Sunday investigation claimed the products were made in “sweatshop” conditions.
The paper wrote that the t-shirts were made by women in a factory in Mauritius who were paid just 62p an hour and that women machinists were forced to sleep 16 to a room.
The garments, which are sold by high street retailer Whistles, bear the words: “this is what a feminist looks like” and formed part of a campaign by Elle magazine to promote feminism.
Milband, Harman and Nick Clegg were all photographed wearing one of the t-shirts last week but David Cameron refused to wear one.
Eva Neitzert, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, has rejected the accusations made by the paper at the weekend, saying that the charity was assured by Whistles that the t-shirts were ethically compliant.
She said that if any “concrete and verifiable evidence of mistreatment of the garment producers emerges”, the charity will ensure Whistles withdraws the range with immediate effect and they will “donate part of the profits to an ethical trading campaigning body”.
She added that the charity remains “confident that we took every practicable and reasonable step to ensure that the range would be ethically produced” and she awaits a fuller understanding of the circumstances.
Neitzert said: “We have been very disappointed to hear the allegations that conditions in the Mauritius factory may not adhere to the ethical standards that we, as the Fawcett Society, would require of any products that bears our name.
“At this stage, we require evidence to back up the claims being made by a journalist at the Mail on Sunday. However, as a charity that campaigns on issues of women’s economic equality, we take these allegations extremely seriously and will do our utmost to investigate them.”
A statement from the Fawcett Society said that the charity was originally told that the garments would be produced ethically in the UK, although queried this when it received samples that appeared to come from Mauritius. The charity then queried this with Whistles and was assured that the factory was “fully audited, socially and ethically compliant”.
A spokesman for Whistles told the Mail: “We place a high priority on environmental, social and ethical issues. The allegations regarding the production of t-shirts in the CMT factory in Mauritius are extremely serious and we are investigating them as a matter of urgency.”
Labour MP Jim Murphy told BBC Radio 5 Live that it was “disappointing” that the charity hadn’t done “due diligence”.
He said: “Those folk who seek to involve high-profile politicians in these entirely sensible sorts of photo opportunities have got to do a degree of due diligence, so they don’t inadvertently lead to this sort of controversy that does nothing to help the initial cause.”
