Kmart defends ethical sourcing program amid Uyghur forced labour allegations

Wesfarmers-owned Kmart has expressed its disappointment over a fresh legal action alleging some of the retailer’s products may have been sourced from suppliers linked to forced labour in China.

The Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women’s Association has filed legal action in the Federal Court to compel Kmart to produce documents showing what it knows about two clothing suppliers listed on its 2024 and 2025 factory lists.

It claims these suppliers have links to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, where systemic state-sponsored forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim people has allegedly taken place.

AUTWA is seeking the documents to determine whether Kmart has adequately implemented its ethical sourcing procedures regarding these suppliers, and whether Kmart’s public statements about this have been misleading or deceptive.

A Kmart spokeswoman said it had invited the AUTWA several times to discuss their concerns. The West Australian understands the group never agreed to a meeting.

The Kmart spokeswoman said it was committed to respecting human rights in its operations and supply chains.

“As a large Australian retailer, we recognise that through our size and scale we have an important role to play in combating modern slavery, which is a serious and complex problem facing global supply chains,” she said.

“We are disappointed that the AUTWA has taken this course of action.”

Kmart — owned by Perth-headquartered conglomerate Wesfarmers — said it had also been in correspondence with the applicant’s lawyers, Maurice Blackburn, for over 12 months to provide details of its ethical sourcing program.

“Our ethical sourcing program has a comprehensive and mandatory compliance framework which sets the standards we expect of our suppliers,” the Kmart spokeswoman said.

“We take all reports of modern slavery risk within our supply chains very seriously.”

Maurice Blackburn said if the documents showed Kmart had not rigorously monitored the risk of the use of forced labour in its supply chain, it may pave the way for a legal claim that it had breached Australian consumer law by engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct.

Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Jennifer Kanis said the case was the first of its kind in seeking to bring real accountability home to Australian retailers in relation to the risk of Uyghur forced labour infecting their supply chains.

Human Rights Law Centre associate legal director Freya Dinshaw said buying clothes should never come at the expense of someone else’s freedom.