M&S may sue on 'child labour' claims

STEVE BOGGAN

Chief Reporter

Marks & Spencer and one of its suppliers were considering legal action yesterday over allegations that children as young as 14 were employed to make their products.

An M&S executive was dispatched to Morocco to investigate claims made in Monday's World In Action documentary that child labour was being used and that clothes made there were later labelled "made in the UK".

Lawyers for the retailer and for Desmonds, a Londonderry-based supplier, were examining the allegations with a view to issuing a writ for defamation. Both companies reacted furiously, arguing that the mislabelling was a simple mistake and that the child labour allegations were "simply untrue".

The programme challenged M&S's public assertions that it carefully vets suppliers to ensure they comply with the highest standards of manufacture and employee welfare and that most of its products are British-made.

Researchers found that some nightwear labelled "made in the UK", supposedly by Desmonds, was in fact made at Sicome SA, in Morocco.

Worse for the manufacturers, World In Action claimed to have interviewed children who were employed at the factory even though they were only 14.

M&S immediately went on the offensive, describing the programme as "slanted and distorted in making unproven allegations which were unsupported by the pictures actually shown."

It went on: "For these allegations to be true, there would have to have been deliberate collusion to mislead us . . . Marks & Spencer has never exploited child labour. The company considers the use of child labour abhorrent, and would never countenance it.

"As for suggestions that Marks & Spencer misrepresents the proportion of its merchandise which is British-made, the company's last annual report clearly stated that M&S sold pounds 5.3bn of British made goods in 1994/95 (78 per cent of British sales).

"In fact, there have been only four incidents of mislabelling in the last five years - representing only pounds 310,000 out of total sales of nearly pounds 18bn."

Denis Desmond, chairman of Desmonds, said that one of his senior managers and a board member of M&S had flown to Morocco to carry out a surprise inspection when World In Action first approached them with allegations.

He said they examined all employment records and met workers in the factory and found no 14-year-olds. "We stipulate that all the girls who work there have to be 16, apart from a few 15-year-old apprentices, who are not allowed to work with machinery," he said.

"It is simply untrue to say our contractors are using child labour. All the evidence, their records, our records and government records, show that this is not the case. The matter is now in the hands of our lawyers."

Granada TV said yesterday that it stood by World In Action's claims and was following up new leads thrown up by the programme.