A bright red symbol, heart shaped, formed by two sides coming together in a protective stance. Though this icon may be new to you now, expect to see it stamped on everything from clothing and cleaning products to skincare and children’s toys in the very near future.
This symbol represents the mark of Child Labor Free, a newly launched social enterprise on the cusp of becoming global on a huge scale, which started out right here in New Zealand. Perhaps even more surprising (or perhaps not), Child Labor Free (CLF) is the brainchild of two down-to-earth Kiwi women with backgrounds in early childhood care and education.
We sit down with founders Nikki Prendergast and Michelle Pratt on a chilly Sunday morning at the CLF offices tucked inside the majestic wood and glass space that is the Saatchi & Saatchi building in Auckland. Both women only arrived back in New Zealand at midnight the night before, having spent the week talking shop across the ditch. They brew us big warming mugs of coffee before we settle in on the couch for what turns out to be a long and incredible yarn.
Child labour in an Indian match factory.
New shoots of an idea
Both with decades of experience in commercial and not-for-profit children’s education, Pratt and Prendergast have worked together for nearly eight years, first partnering on Living and Learning, an initiative to provide childcare and family support for low socio-economic areas, before going into business as co-owners of New Shoots, a growing group of private childcare centres and an educational resource company.
It was when they began to delve into the origins of the educational resources they were sourcing (everything from puzzles, toys and musical instruments to furniture and books) that the seed of the idea that was to become CLF was germinated.
“When we were designing the New Shoots buildings, we were really unhappy with the style of furniture that was in other centres,” says Pratt. “We had done quite a bit of work at Living and Learning on furniture and had manufactured our own range out of a company in Mt Maunganui called Starex. But we were also looking at other pieces we wanted to incorporate and found they were out of our budget, so we decided to import stuff out of China.”
So Prendergast set off for Asia. “I decided I wanted to do inspections of the factories while we were there,” she says, “because obviously we work in early childhood and the thought that unethical labour could be happening is a yucky feeling. That was the start of it [CLF].
“Factories in China are so different. You have to get an interpreter, and a driver, pulling over all the way to ask people directions. And it takes a whole day to do a factory inspection, by the time you find it and make yourself known. We actually found the working conditions at our factories, though they obviously weren’t like New Zealand, were okay. So we moved on to the next part of our journey.
“As with the furniture, we were having trouble with our resources and suppliers. We couldn’t find what we wanted, we didn’t want plastic, we wanted something more natural.” Utilising Pratt’s husband Murray as their shipper, they began sourcing product from around the globe. “People would come into the [New Shoots] centres and ask where we got it all from,” she says. “So after a bit we said, ‘This is ridiculous, let’s just pull this together.’ And that was when this journey really began.”
A young labourer in a Bangladesh soap factory.
An immense global issue
It was the subject of child labour that continued to niggle. With retailers and consumers worldwide indicating concern over the issue, and reports by the International Labor Organisation estimating 168 million children engaged in labour globally, what surfaced was the total lack of an international accreditation system that ran across all industries.
“What we asked was, ‘How can it be that this doesn’t exist?’” says Pratt. “So we said, let’s get a whole research study done on child labour, let’s commission a review of child labour, the NGOs, the accreditation systems around it, what Unicef thinks, what the UN thinks, everything on child labour. We pulled it together in one big report. We thought we had missed it but it just didn’t exist.”
At this point, the average person might have felt overwhelmed and intimidated by the scale of the issue and the lack of infrastructure already in place. But not Prendergast and Pratt. Instead of throwing their hands up in despair or even just continuing along their path attempting to stick to their ethics as best they were able, the pair rolled up their sleeves and went headfirst into battle.
“We talked to [communications and advertising agency] Saatchi & Saatchi and booked a global social media review,” says Pratt. “We looked at it from every angle; was it an issue on the rise? What was the issue? We found it was absolutely on the rise. People are concerned about it; they want to know about it. It’s a high priority. So then we got together the best people we knew, and from there we developed the whole concept around Child Labor Free.”
The newly formed team then began building software, establishing communications and legal-ities, creating the CLF mark (that little red heart) and deciding where to take it. Then it was time to test the system. Furniture company Starex, already a trusted collaborator, was the obvious place to start.
“What happens is the documentation gets loaded in, then [consulting, assurance and advisory company] Ernst & Young will take a look at it, run a test on the company, then their paperwork is assessed, then their factories are physically inspected,” explains Pratt.
A difficult definition
Defining exactly what fell under ‘child labour’ has been one of the largest challenges faced by the pair. “The definition took us a year to write,” says Pratt. “It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It wasn’t one neat sentence. It came down to words like ‘or’ and ‘and’. Like, is it legal in the country OR does it affect social wellbeing? Defining what work, labour and hazardous labour is, is complex. But that’s what we’re asking our assessment people to audit against, that definition.”
In 2014 British consulting firm Maplecroft published a report ranking 197 countries, which flagged 83 countries as ‘extreme risk’, based on the frequency and severity of reported child labour incidents, as well as the performance of governments in preventing child labour and ensuring the accountability of perpetrators. Consistently ranked as one of the worst, African nation Eritrea actually enforces child labour via the policy of Mahtot, where children are required to work at least two months a year, while equally notorious Somalia lacks any solid legal framework, law enforcement or government policies to address their extreme child labour issue.
It’s not a problem unique to developing countries. The US fell into the medium-risk zone, largely due to an exemption in labour laws for children working on small farms that reportedly sees thousands of kids working in dangerous conditions on tobacco farms. “We all had jobs as kids, but it was after school, a paper run,” says Pratt. “[In other countries] children might be out picking potatoes in the morning then going to school in the afternoon, but that’s not considered labour, it’s not hazardous or harmful to them, because that’s what they need to do for their family. They are still getting an education. So there have been lots of times where we’ve said, ‘Okay, we just need to figure this out.’ It’s like a massive jigsaw puzzle on the table and we are doing it slowly.”
CLF founders Michelle Pratt, left, and Nikki Prendergast.
Continued support
The accreditation process, while key, is only one step in the cycle CLF is establishing. Acutely aware of the complexities, it has consulted with experts “from day one” to establish sustainable solutions that work in parallel to the accreditation to ensure child labour is permanently eliminated. “If we’re really going to end child labour, then as well as the certification system, we need to work with brands and consumers to address the root cause of the issue and invest in preventative projects to stop it occurring in the first place,” asserts Prendergast.
This means working with child protection experts like Unicef to investigate ways to address “the other side of the issue”, ensuring support for children and families on the ground once the labour is removed. The annual licence fee will support communities in changing their cultural acceptance of child labour, while supporting strategies and programming to provide alternative income to families, access to nurseries, quality education and protective services.
Afghan children sort bricks in a Kabul factory, where they work from 8am to 5pm daily.
A fashionable start
The next step was a wider pool of pilot testing. “We started with fashion because we think it’s something that touches the most people’s lives,” says Pratt. “Fashion, you touch it, you wear it, it’s an everyday event, so we thought, okay, we’ll go and talk to some designers.” Kate Sylvester, Ruby, Hailwood, Stolen Girlfriends Club and Nom*D all immediately signed on, and their accreditation will be celebrated and promoted in collaboration with New Zealand Fashion Week (NZFW).
“When we presented CLF to them [NZFW], they just said, ‘Wow, let’s do this, let’s weave it through the whole event. Dame Pieter [Stewart, owner of NZ Fashion Week] said, ‘This is an opportunity for New Zealand. It’s New Zealand Fashion Week, and this is a New Zealand story.’ It’s a great fit.”
The designers are equally passionate. “The intent behind CLF, to stop child labour and to re-invest in communities to ensure positive growth, is an absolute no-brainer for me,” says Emily Miller-Sharma, general manager of Ruby, who produce 60% of their product in New Zealand and the rest offshore. “Ending child labour is something I feel strongly about and is another one of those things that for some people can be easily forgotten because it’s hidden away. CLF is an easy way for companies to take responsibility for themselves within a framework that’s already been constructed. It adds another layer of transparency and social responsibility to our company, which I think is a good thing.
“Initially some suppliers felt upset; they thought we were doing this accreditation because we didn’t trust them, but after explaining the rationale behind our involvement it was easy for them to understand our position; it’s not about our trust (or lack of it), it’s more about joining a group of businesses that meet the same criteria and therefore making a stronger network, rather than if we were all just doing it on our own.”
“We make part of our collection in China,” says Kate Sylvester, “and we feel very directly and closely linked with our fantastic factories. There’s always an immediate assumption it’s all about exploitation and negative connotations, but they do beautiful work and they’re very highly skilled. I wanted to show that. I thought it [being CLF certified] would be an amazingly positive thing for them. We’ve met with [Prendergast and Pratt] quite a few times now, they’re fantastic women, really impressive and positive to deal with. I have huge admiration for them and what they’re doing.”
Left: Kate Sylvester was among the first to sign up as a CLF pilot brand. Right: A boy cures tobacco on his family farm in Virginia.
Taking it to the world
So where to from here? The pair say they hope to have more than 100 New Zealand brands on board by mid-2016 (already, aside from the Fashion Week pilot designers, Zambesi, Untouched World and ecostore are signed up). They’ll soon be heading to the US and UK for ongoing talks with international brands. While they can’t yet say who, the brands are among the world’s most iconic; “some of these guys have thousands of factories,” says Pratt, from categories as wide-ranging as automotive, textiles, furniture, consumables, toys, beauty and fashion.
They’ve been overwhelmed by the level of interest, more than confirming the strong need for such a system, but are confident they’re ready. “It’s built for the international market,” says Pratt. “That’s why it’s labour spelt l-a-b-o-r, but it’s a New Zealand story, and the great thing is there’s going to be huge media attention for the brands we take with us, globally.”
For Pratt and Prendergast, what they set out to achieve will come full cycle. “All our people are 100% behind it. We’re so committed; it’s about taking every-one on the journey. We’re putting together resource kits for schools, taking the kids and parents from our centres on the journey too. If we can do that and leave a legacy, that’s the most important thing. We’ve had wonderful experiences, life has been good to us and if we can change the landscape for children globally, we can do it for kids in New Zealand too. We’ve applied the same vision. Let’s do it for everyone.”
Words by: Josie Steenhart
Photos: Emily Chalk and Getty Images
Hair and makeup by: Sharon Laurence using M.A.C
