Report says big stores have duty to workers who produce their own-brand products

Supermarkets have a duty to ensure their own-brand products are not supplied under harmful circumstances, according to a new report. The report from Christian Aid calls for a code of practice to ensure that workers producing own-brand products are fairly treated. It also wants the multiples to publicly declare their commitment to ethical trading practices and to see how the conditions of workers in the Third World can be improved.

"For millions of workers in Africa, South America and elsewhere, the products we buy can be a matter of life and death," said Mr Michael Begg, of Christian Aid.

He gave the example of Colombian flower-growers who are being "poisoned to death" by chemicals used to produce perfect blooms when the flowers are sold in Ireland.

However, few of the large retailers responded to Christian Aid's invitation to attend the publication of the report in Dublin yesterday. Of the big five chains, only Musgraves, which controls Super Valu, L&N and Centra, sent a representative.

The report accepts that supermarkets have little control over branded products. They do, however, have the power to influence suppliers of own-brand products, which is a rapidly growing sector.

According to Mr Martin Drury, the agency's campaigns director, the experience in the UK was that supermarkets were indifferent to such matters. However, they "desperately" didn't want to be compared unfavourably to a rival in the newspapers. Each customer lost or gained was worth £90,000 to them, so the competition between rival chains was intense.

The report says that unless marketing practices are changed and produce can be identified, supermarkets and consumers will have no means of identifying the source and so will not be able to vouch for labour standards.

Dunnes Stores was recently at the centre of controversy when it was revealed the some of its own-brand shirts were manufactured in a factory in Burma run by the military. Even when the company said it would not handle any more goods made in Burma, it continued to sell the remaining stock.