Sunday Tribune reporter Sarah McInerney's powerful description of the appalling wages, long hours and substandard working conditions endured in the Panarub factory in Jakarta in Indonesia , where the Adidas-labelled boot is made makes for harrowing reading. For consumers worried about buying clothing and footwear manufactured in such conditions, there is a dilemma. To support the system means endorsing the exploitation of workers in the Far East where these sweatshops proliferate. But boycotting the goods could mean workers lose jobs. A minimum wage is bad enough;

no wage, particularly for women and children, can bring a descent to street crime and prostitution.

Yet, as Oxfam, the aid agency currently campaigning for the Panarub workers argues in today's story, there is a lot individuals can do.

Before buying clothing . . . be it from Penneys or Brown Thomas . . . consumers should make themselves aware of the manufacturing code of practice of the company or label they are buying from.

Many designer labels and retail giants . . . stung by previous poor publicity . . . now operate ethical codes which they expect their contract companies to enforce. If they do not police their own codes, then consumers should buy from a company that does.

On a political level, international trade agreements between the EU and individual countries should allow imports only from countries that have signed the UN International Labour Organisation's conventions which address human rights issues such as minimum wage levels, freedom of association, the right to be a union member, wage levels, child labour, equal pay and anti-discrimination legislation.