Awareness Of Supermarkets For Ethically Responsible Clothing

It is very common for workers to hide or cover up the original conditions of their work from people. Workers at Tesco and Asda do the same thing just because they are scared of getting fired. After investigating the factories that produce low cost goods for supermarkets, it was discovered that the workers are treated with inequity and not provided with good working rumeneration.

Through investigation, it was discovered that the reduction in prices of clothes by Tesco, for 700 clothes affected the workers even. This is because when the giants of the market, like Tesco and Asda, reduce prices, the burden comes on to the suppliers, who then put immense pressure on their workers, and treat them badly. These major giants have huge buying power, as per the representative of Clean Clothes Campaign in UK, Sam Maher states, that they can really help in improving the working condition of the labours. All falls upon the workers who merely want to survive, and have to deal with the pressure.

The Investigation was conducted in 30 manufacturing units across Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and Bangladesh, where 440 workers were interviewed. These workers make clothes for top ranking chains, Walmart (Asda), Tesco, Lidl, Aldi, and Carrefore. A large number of workers said that they mostly had to work overtime, and only few of the overtime hours were recorded, so they were not always paid for the long hours. Absences were almost forbidden, as pay was deducted if leave was taken, and holidays were non-existent.

After the research, the brands were negatively publicised and hence, Tesco and Asda, have decided to do something about it. Tesco has come out with its own ethical line. Asda is now selling fair-trade T-shirts.

Tesco brought a huge change in the supermarket trend by approaching the famous Izzy Lane brand, owned by Isobel Davies. These beautiful ethically responsible clothes use the wool of flock of sheep, which results in using the wool of the whole flock for one skirt only. Hence, this was quite costly for Tesco, but they had to take this step since they had become aware about Labour rights. However, Tesco also increased their prices since Izzy Lane tends to be expensive.

This major rise is a result of the consumer being aware about ethical clothes, and forced the supermarket, suppliers, and retailers to abide by the customer demand. Although ethically responsible clothes are expensive than the other clothes, customers do not mind spending their money on them.

This is undoubtedly because of the fact that supermarkets, retailers, and independent stores alike are driven by customer demand. Consumers have become aware, and they prefer to buy reasonably priced products rather than cheap products.

The Harry Potter celebrity, Emma Watson, is starting her own ethically responsible clothing line, in association with People Tree, an organisation, which is working towards helping poor countries to earn their own income. This brand will introduce around 26 styles of female clothes and 15 styles of men clothes in the year 2010. The workers of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and others will be hired to do this, so that they can earn money.

Sarah J Jones is a fashion designer. Now you can buy new and stylish Linen Tops with good quality at half price now at her recommended website at http://www.saharalondon.com.