Sports giants accused of continued labor exploitation

Several sportswear manufacturers have withdrawn from Indonesian factories after aid groups complained of labor exploitation

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- An investigation by the aid agency Oxfam has uncovered what it says are continuing cases of worker exploitation at Indonesian factories producing sportswear for Nike and Adidas-Salomon.

Despite what the report says are some small steps forward Oxfam claims workers are still overworked, underpaid and living in fear.

The report entitled "We are not machines", released Thursday by the Australian branch of Oxfam, said that while there has been some progress, workers are still overworked, underpaid and many lived in fear of speaking out.

The group acknowledged that the two global sportswear giants had responded to international pressure to improve working conditions, but said neither had done enough.

The report said that workers lived in extreme poverty with full time wages as low as $2 a day. It said the employees worked in often dangerous or unhealthy conditions and that they were shouted at and humiliated by bosses if they complained.

Timothy Connor, author of the report, told Reuters news agency that improvements had occurred since a previous investigation in September 2000, but he said what changes there had been "still fall well short of pulling workers out of poverty or providing them with safe conditions or protecting their rights to have unions which we see as the key issues."

"There have been improvements in terms of a reduction in sexual harassment, the availability of sick leave and a reduction in the level of humiliation against workers but they are still shouted at when they work too slowly," Connor said.

Standards

The report was released as Adidas announced fourth quarter net global sales of $1.22 billion, equivalent to a five percent rise in currency neutral terms.

Both Nike and Adidas have said they regularly monitor labor practices in the factories contracted to produce for them and will break off dealings with contractors who do not conform to company standards.

The Oxfam report, researched between July 2001 and January 2002 and focusing on four factories on the Indonesian island of Java, said full time wages as low as $2 a day meant workers with children had to send them to distant villages to be cared for by relatives or had to go into debt to meet basic needs.

The average monthly minimum wage in Jakarta is around $50 per month.

The report said that workers had been made to fear that active union involvement could lead them to be dismissed, jailed or physically assaulted.

Factory workers said in the report that although there had been some reduction in the physical and psychological pressure under which they work, they continued to be shouted at and humiliated and had to work in dangerous conditions.

With the soccer World Cup in June, a bumper time for sportswear sales, the report is unlikely to be welcomed by some in the industry.

In recent years several global sportswear companies, including the two mentioned in the Oxfam report, have come under mounting pressure over the treatment of staff in Asian factories subcontracted to produce the bulk of their clothing.

Connor told Reuters that most of the Nike and Adidas factories operating in Indonesia were mainly owned and operated by firms based in Taiwan or Korea.