Tesco 'slave labour' row

Tesco is accused today of exploiting workers who are paid an average 16p an hour.

A damaging investigation alleges that Britain's biggest retailer - which made a £2.8 billion profit last year - is being supplied by an Indian factory where textile workers earn, on average, £8.75 for a 54-hour, six-day week. The lowest paid receive less than £7 a week.

A researcher flown in from India will present the figures at the retail giant's annual shareholders' meeting tomorrow in an attempt to maximise Tesco's embarrassment.

The meeting in Birmingham is being used by several organisations and individuals to pick a fight with Tesco, which takes about one pound in seven spent on the High Street and is the world's third biggest retailer.

Tesco will also come under fire from:

US presidential candidate Barrack Obama, who has written to Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy about workers' rights at its US subsidiary Fresh & Easy. The head of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents 1.3 million American employees, will attend the AGM.

TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who is putting a resolution about chicken welfare to the AGM. He has paid £86,888 for the printing and circulation of his resolution.

Chinese biology professor Shi Hai Tao, who plans to speak out about the treatment of live turtles in Tesco's Chinese stores.

The report into Indian factory conditions has been compiled by the charity War on Want and the campaign group Labour Behind the Label, which are demanding improved pay and conditions in factories which supply British high street chains.

Workers at the factory in Bangalore, which is not being named for fear of reprisals from bosses, make clothes on a contract basis for Tesco's hugely successful Florence and Fred range. It also manufactures garments for other High Street chains.

War on Want claims as many as four out of five women examined by doctors for the Indian workers' rights organisation Cividep showed evidence of malnutrition. The price of rice in India is said to have risen 20 per cent over the last year.

The report alleges that workers risk dismissal for failing to meet strict targets and are forced to work overtime but only receive money for half the extra hours recorded.

It also says factory bosses ordered employees, most of whom are women, to work on a Sunday to prevent them attending a union meeting scheduled for that day.

The Bangalore Garment and Textile Workers' Union has calculated that a living wage should be £52 a month.

Simon McRae, senior campaigns officer at War on Want, said today: "Our new evidence reveals how Tesco's cheap clothing comes at the shameful price of workers' poverty. Again and again scandals exposing UK retailers exploitinggarment workers underline that the public cannot trust stores to police themselves. It is high time the British government legislate to stop this abuse."

A Tesco spokesman said: "It's disappointing that War on Want has once again chosen to publicise unsubstantiated allegations without engaging with us. We have been trying to discuss our approach to ethical trading with them but they have ignored our calls. Now, out of the blue, they make these allegations without producing any evidence or giving us any detail on the factories they claim have problems. This means we cannot investigate.

"We insist on high standards and go to great lengths to ensure our suppliers meet them. If there is an issue in a factory supplying Tesco, we will deal with it and ensure the interests of workers are protected."

SUPERMARKET DEFIES CALLS TO PULL OUT OF ZIMBABWE

Tesco has confirmed it will not be pulling out of Zimbabwe as retailers face growing pressure to cut business ties amid the growing violence.

Supermarkets have been criticised for selling produce from the country where millions are starving under President Robert Mugabe's regime.

But Tesco said trade provided crucial support to small farmers, adding it would be "irresponsible" to leave now.

A spokesman said: "By trading with Zimbabwe we are supporting hundreds of small farmers and not the Mugabe government.

"There is precious little employment of any sort in Zimbabwe and it would simply be irresponsible to deprive thousands of people of their only means of feeding their families."

Tesco is among a number of British supermarkets who sell Zimbabwean sugar snap peas and fine beans.

Earlier this year Waitrose stood by its decision to sell fish from Zimbabwe, saying it stocked tilapia as a sustainable alternative to wild cod.