Concerns over labour standards in one of the world’s major cotton producing nations are growing, following allegations that children as young as six are being used to harvest the crop in Uzbekistan.

Writing in the LA Times , Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee, claimed that calls for the government in Uzbekistan – the world’s third largest exporter of raw cotton – to take action, in an industry which is worth around $1bn a year to the former Soviet Republic, have fallen on deaf ears.

In April of this year, Harkin himself brought forward a resolution calling on the country’s government to grant unrestricted access to the International Labour Organisation to allow for a thorough audit of labour practices during the 2009 harvest.

Despite assurances from the top level of president Islam Karimov’s regime, Harkin claims there has been “zero action” in the intervening period.

A large number of influential retailers in the US have signed up to a campaign aimed at ensuring the ethical standards of cotton produced in the country, with the likes of Wal-Mart, Gap and Levi Strauss, all throwing their weight behind a campaign that began in 2007.

However, although some of the 25 signatories of the campaign have ordered their suppliers to stop buying Uzbek cotton, the mounting pressure appears to have had little impact on the ground.

Earlier this month, the US Department for Labour included Uzbek cotton on its list of products made by forced child labour, in a move that was welcomed by a range of businesses, non-government organizations, and ethical investors.

Retailer H&M is just one of a number of companies that is now actively boycotting cotton produced in Uzbekistan, although it admits that cutting out supplies from the country completely poses a genuine challenge.

“Bearing in mind that Uzbekistan is one of the world’s biggest exporters of cotton, its cotton may be found in all types of cotton products, not just in H&M’s clothes,” said a spokesman. “It is often virtually impossible to trace the cotton because it is traded a number of times – and because we do not buy any cotton ourselves.”

Richard Edwards

A common code of practice governing ethical sourcing practices in countries such as India is needed in order to reduce confusion and improve standards.

That’s the view of one of the world’s largest retailers, which believes that the bewildering array of ethical codes governing procurement across the world does nothing to help those who should benefit most from global sourcing.

The sourcing policies of a number of leading retailers have come under increasing scrutiny after a series of high profile investigations involving labour practices on the Indian subcontinent. Primark and Tesco are just two companies facing criticism after questions were raised over the ethical standards of their suppliers.

Multiple codes

Terry Babbs, Tesco’s international law and trading director, however, believes that current legislation makes it very hard for retailers to ensure that their suppliers are adhering to a multitude of demands. “There are more than a thousand labour codes in existence, and it would help greatly if there was a single code,” he said.

Despite the ongoing financial crisis, increasingly environmentally-savvy consumers are continuing to demand cheap goods that are produced to exacting ethical standards. “At the top of our customers’ minds are price and availability, particularly in tough economic times, but they also expect us to take care of the ethical dimension on their behalf,” said Babbs.

A leading figure in the Indian retail industry also claimed that ethical demands and intensive auditing are also marginalising skilled workers in the very poorest areas. “The audits are an incentive to do everything inside the factory and to use machinery, “ said Rajan Sanhi, owner of Panorama Exports, a garment factory in Havana near Delhi. “It is a headache to do anything outside.”