Marks & Spencer's response to BHRRC Gender-based violence & Harassment report six-month update
Thank you for your email regarding the report, Unbearable Harassment: The fashion industry & widespread abuse of female garment workers in Indian factories published in April 2022 and for putting us in touch with your research and on the ground partner Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) in order to investigate the allegations further.
Based on the information imparted by AFWA in the meeting, we were informed that we were linked to only one factory in the report, that we had in fact, stopped sourcing from in 2019 and we had ceased the relationship prior to the report research being conducted in 2020/2021 and the publication in 2022...
...as we have not been sourcing from this site since 2019, we have no trading relationship with them and we will not be returning to this site, we have not been part of the remediation.
We have successfully implemented many collaborative action plans in sites where we have commercial relationships and we continue to work with our multistakeholder groups and other brands to fund and support programmes which include gender empowerment and seek to address gender-based violence and harassment issues if found...
[The full response is attached]