Sportswear brands ‘offside’ on workers’ rights : Melbourne Indymedia

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Sportswear brands ‘offside’ on workers’ rights

As global sports brands crank up their advertising for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, sportswear workers in Asia are struggling to earn a living.

Oxfam International’s report Offside! Labour Rights and Sportswear Production in Asia examines how sports brands are tackling the problem of sweatshops in their industry with a particular focus on workers’ freedom to form and join trade unions.

The report features nine case studies that document how sports brands have responded to evidence of labour rights abuses in particular factories. In some cases they have responded well and addressed the problems while in others labour abuses have continued.

Ultimately, a bigger challenge remains to persuade sports brands to make sure human rights are respected right across their supply chain. The report assesses how much effort sports brands have made to improve labour rights for all workers who make their products.

When it comes to ending sweatshops, how do sports brands compare?

If we graded sports brands on their labour rights performance none would receive a pass mark. Even for those companies which have made some progress, workers' basic rights are only respected in a minority of supplier factories.

That said, Oxfam International’s new report Offside! Labour Rights and Sportswear Production in Asia focuses on production in Asia and in this part of the world Reebok was found to have made the most effort to uphold sportswear workers’ rights.

Reebok staff have worked hard to ensure respect for trade union rights in a number of supplier factories in Asia. The company has also co-operated with labour rights groups to explore the possibility of democratic representation in countries that legally restrict trade union rights.

Now that Reebok has been taken over by adidas we hope this work in Asia continues. Unfortunately, Reebok's positive work in Asia has been undermined by the company's vigorous opposition to the establishment of trade unions in its distribution centres in the United States.

FILA has the poorest record for looking after people producing its goods and is identified in the report as the company least interested in improving labour conditions in its supplier factories in Asia.

Oxfam research in 2004 into long-time FILA sneaker supplier PT Tae Hwa in Indonesia revealed serious labour abuses including denial of trade union rights, high levels of sexual harassment and intrusive and inappropriate procedures for claiming menstrual leave (a legal entitlement under Indonesian law).

At the time FILA claimed there was little it could do immediately but said that in future the company would take steps to improve respect for labour rights in its supply chain.

In February 2005, the Tae Hwa factory closed without warning leaving thousands of workers without jobs. Since then, FILA has declined to reveal its role in the factory's closure or to take responsibility for ensuring Tae Hwa workers receive their legal entitlement to severance pay.

Unlike Nike, Reebok and Puma, FILA does not reveal the addresses of its other supplier factories and the company has ignored requests to reveal what steps, if any, it is taking to improve respect for trade union rights in these factories.

Like Reebok, a number of other sports brands – notably Nike, adidas, Puma, Asics and Umbro – have made some improvement to their labour practices by becoming more transparent, stopping anti-union discrimination in some factories and allowing some workers to receive training regarding their rights.

However, even these companies source most of their production in economic zones where independent unions are banned, and both Puma and Nike have recently cut orders to factories where workers have established trade unions.

Mizuno, New Balance, Lotto, Kappa and Pentland (which owns Speedo and Lacoste) – have each demonstrated some level of interest in co-operating with trade unions and human rights groups to improve workers' conditions.

However, for some of these brands their programs to improve working conditions are just beginning and it is too early to assess how serious they are about ending sweatshops. These brands have also been reluctant to provide enough evidence for us to determine how many workers in their supply chains can claim their rights or freely form and join trade unions.

These brands have demonstrated less transparency than Nike, adidas, Puma, Asics and Umbro.