Paying a High Price for a £3.50 Uniform

Saturday 16th of August 2008 03:15:13 PM

There is much concern about the competition between British supermarkets to sell cheap school clothes and uniforms. The reason for the concern is the fact that much of the cheap clothing is made in poverty stricken countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The supermarkets are currently in a price war which is driving down the retail price of school clothes. This puts more pressure on manufacturers to produce clothing even cheaper than they currently do. In some cases the price of uniforms has been slashed almost in half.

There are two charitable organizations that focus on eliminating world poverty. They are named War on Want and Labour Behind the Label. The organizations report that the working poor in countries such as Bangladesh are finding it harder and harder to make enough to buy food for the family and to pay for their children’s education.

The supermarkets selling the school clothes make huge bulk factory orders requesting low to medium quality. According to the anti-poverty charities, the low cost of clothing makes it impossible for factories to pay their workers a living wage. The workers are paid by the piece and when the selling price drops, the per piece amount paid must drop also.

Most of the supermarkets belong to the Ethical Trading Initiative which is an alliance dedicated to improving world working conditions. They ask factories to pay the local minimum wage or higher. Alliances such as this one have been instrumental in stopping child labour, but the wage issue has not been resolved.

War on Want is encouraging British teachers to instruct their students on how and where clothes such as embroidered shirts are made. With this information, children can learn how to choose clothing that was made by people being paid a fair wage.