When you buy a pair of shoes, you may be getting more than you bargained for.
You may, unknowingly, be supporting businesses that force their staff to work long hours, exposed without protection to dangerous glues and solvents.
Research by the aid agency CAFOD has uncovered this and other abuses, such as forced pregnancy tests, beatings for slow work, exploitative child labour, and pay so low that some shoe workers cannot themselves afford shoes.
Increasingly, shoes bought in the UK are imported from third world countries, where these abuses were found.
These people could be protected from abuse if UK shoe retailers independently checked codes of conduct guaranteeing minimum labour standards for their third world suppliers. Please do not boycott shoes made in the Third World - this would threaten jobs there. Instead, support the call for codes of conduct for the shoe trade.
Contact CAFOD Campaigns Office, Romero Close, Stockwell Road, London, SW9 9TY
Tel: 0171 733 7900, E-Mail: [email protected]Useful Links to follow
Working conditions in the shoe trade - summary
CAFOD Campaign,
