La Redoute sent a very prompt to my e-mail, however they did not answer the questions I asked them, such as whether they could guarantee that no child labour was used in production of garments for them. A key issue!
Here is their response:
Please be assured that La Redoute considers business ethics very seriously and the company is part of a group of companies which are and have been for sometime regular supporters and sponsors of the Institute of Business Ethics participating in a number of their activities. We recently purchased over 100 copies of the Institutes work entitled “Where did that come from” for distribution and consideration to al relevant colleagues within the group companies.
As stated we are very aware of supply and labour issues and in addition to our own Ethics Charter we also recently sought comment from suppliers in relation to working practices. Furthermore our buyers are charged with reporting back any concerns about working conditions that they experience on buying rips and our contracts with suppliers require them to meet the basic minimum standards of the International Labour Organisation.
I suppose you could say they are doing the bare minimum and utterly underestimating the impact they could have on the lives of their workers.
