Gap Inc.
October 28, 2007
Background
Gap Inc. was recently informed about an allegation of child labor at a facility in India that was working on one product for GapKids. The charge involves an order that a vendor appears to have subcontracted out to an unauthorized subcontractor in direct violation of our agreement. As soon as we were alerted to this situation, we immediately began an investigation. In addition, we took immediate steps to stop the work order and to prevent the product from being sold.
Gap Inc. strictly prohibits the use of child labor in the production of any garments. Each of our suppliers is required to guarantee that they will not use child labor to produce Gap Inc. garments.
Statement
The following is a statement by Dan Henkle, Gap Inc.’s senior vice president of social responsibility:
“This allegation about an unauthorized facility in India is deeply upsetting. Under absolutely no circumstance is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments. It’s a non-negotiable for us. We have a team of 90 full-time employees worldwide, including a team from India, dedicated to ensuring that vendors abide by our guidelines, including our strict prohibition on employing children. In fact, we stopped working with 23 factories last year as a result of our ongoing monitoring efforts, including unannounced visits, to locations around the world.
In this case, our team in India is conducting a full investigation and we have already made sure the products will never be sold. Even though violations of our strict prohibition on child labor are extremely rare, we are calling for an urgent meeting with all of our suppliers in this region to reinforce this policy.
We have a strong history of addressing challenges like this head-on, and our approach to this situation is no exception. We will continue to work with the government, NGOs, trade unions, and other stakeholder organizations in an effort to end the use of child labor.”
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