[petpiranha]

Exclusive: A Channel 4 News undercover investigation has found children aged as young as twelve working for two of Tesco's suppliers in Bangladesh.

Secretly filmed footage captures Tesco's own label clothes being manufactured by workers, who look clearly under 15, in four factories owned by suppliers to Britain's biggest retailer.

During the course of the 4 month investigation, it also emerged that Tesco did not know that two of the factories Channel 4 News visited were manufacturing its clothes. As a result, Tesco had never ethically audited them.

Both Bangladeshi suppliers have denied the existence of any child workers within their factories, stating the ages of all workers are independently verified.

There is no suggestion that Tesco ever knew about child workers at any of the factories visited and in a statement to Channel 4 News Tesco said it:

"& abhors the use of child labour and is at the forefront of industry efforts to stamp it out through systematic investigations of its suppliers&"

It added: "&. on receipt of these allegations Tesco immediately made unannounced visits to the suppliers " but " &found no evidence of any use of child labour."

Tesco is a founder member of the Ethical Trading Initiative which bans child labour. The investigation, however, does raise questions about Tesco's ability to actually enforce the ethical standards it claims to insist upon.