14 December 2007
ETHICAL CHRISTMAS TOYS VS THE TOY GIANT SCROOGES
Factory workers in the developing world are still paying a high price for cheap Christmas toys, finds Ethical Consumer. Giant retailers such as Walmart have forced prices down, leading the major toy companies to manufacture as cheaply as possible in countries such as China – which produces three quarters of the world’s toys (1).
In the late nineties Mattel was the first major toy company to introduce a code of conduct addressing working conditions at its suppliers’ factories. This followed a damaging expose on NBC television which showed 13 year old Indonesian girls making Barbie dolls (2). Codes of conduct are now common place. But the toy giants have passed the pressure onto supplier factories, demanding better working conditions at the same time as lower manufacturing costs.
“Workers’ salaries, working hours and conditions often provide the only flexible costs in the supply chain,” says Ethical Consumer's Jane Turner. “And if workers or labour organisations protest conditions the toy giants can pass the blame onto suppliers.”
According to Gary Beadell, MD of auditing group Level Works, at least 90% of Chinese factories falsified records for inspectors (3). China Labor Watch reported in August 2007 that one factory, which makes Hasbro’s ‘Twister’, enforcing overtime, with workers putting in an average of 300 working hours a month (3).
Ethical Consumer has rated the companies behind the top 12 Christmas ‘dream toys’ (4). These top 12 are made by just five major toy companies: Character, Zapf, Hasbro, Mattel and Vivid. Ethical Consumer’s unique rating system, ethiscore, provides a numerical rating for each company based on social, ethical and environmental performance. All of the toy giants received Ethical Consumer’s worst rating for environmental reporting.
THE TOP 12 'DREAM TOYS FOR CHRISTMAS' 2007
TOY – COMPANY - ETHISCORE
Doctor Who Dalek Sec Hybrid Voice Changer Mask – Character - 11
Flytech Dragonfly – Character - 11
GR8 Art Bindeez Super Deluxe Studio Centre – Character - 11
Baby Annabell New V4 – Zapf - 10
Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old? - Hasbro - 9.5
Transformers Movie Leader: Optimus Prime – Hasbro - 9.5
In The Night Garden - Blanket Time Igglepiggle – Hasbro - 9.5
Barbie Girls – Mattel - 8.5
Puppy Grows and Knows Your Name – Mattel - 8.5
Say What? - Radica (Mattel) - 8.5
Golden Balls – Vivid - 7.5
Roary remote control car – Vivid - 7.5
“There are alternatives,” says Jane Turner. “The top five ethical toy companies that we have selected make their toys from sustainable wood and manufacture either in Europe or the Fairtrade label. “Now all you have to do is persuade your kids they really don’t want Igglepiggle or Barbie!”
ETHICAL TOY COMPANIES
BRAND - ETHISCORE
Escor - 16.5
Lanka Kade - 16.5
Myriad - 15
Orchard Toys - 15
Plan - 14
The “Top Toys for Christmas” report is available free on www.ethiscore.org.
A ‘Corporate Watch' feature on Hasbro and Mattel appeared in [BROKEN LINK] Ethical Consumer magazine issue 110.
Footnotes
1. www.toy-ictic.org
2. Clark, Eric, ‘The Real Toy Story’ (2007, p.202)
3. www.chinalaborwatch.org/20070821eighttoy.htm
4. www.toyretailersassociation.co.uk/toysxmas/hot_dozen_2007.htm
Ethical Consumer...
- is the UK's leading alternative consumer organization
- maintains the most comprehensive database of corporate ethics in the world - tracking over 30,000 companies, compiled over 20 years, updated daily by dedicated researchers
- employs a unique ethical scoring system - ethiscore - constantly informed by the leading edge of campaign groups
- is a not-for-profit worker's co-operative completely independent of corporate interests
Ethical Consumer's unique ethiscore system rates companies on their social, ethical and environmental performance. Companies are rated in over twenty categories across four main headings - Environment, Human rights, Animal rights, Politics. Products are then rated for their positive ethical and sustainability features.