Allegations have been leveled against the world’s largest retail fashion house for using slave labour at their factories in Argentina. Reports suggest that immigrant workers including child workers were found by workers’ rights group, La Alameda. The workers were producing garments for the fashion giant in “degrading” sweatshop conditions investigators said.
The workers, mostly Bolivian, claimed they had to work 13 hours a day and could not leave the factories without gaining permission. One of the workshops in Buenos Aries was said to manufacture the “Zara Man” label. Gustavo Vera, La Alameda spokesperson said workers were made to start at 07h00 and work without a break until 23h00 for six days a week.
The country’s head for health and Safety, Juan Gomez Centurion said:
We found men and children who lived in places where they worked.
They were not registered and they were living in terrible conditions. They had no official documents and were held against their will, they were not allowed to leave their workplaces without permission.
A spokesperson for the company, Inditex which Zara is a part of said:
We are surprised by the allegations. Based on the limited information we have received so far, the workshops in question do not appear to have any relationship with our approved suppliers in Argentina.
We are keen to work with La Alameda to understand the substance of their allegations, but we have received no contact from them regarding these claims, nor have we had any contact or complaint from the Argentinian authorities.
The company’s spokesperson said that Zara has 60 Argentian manufacturers and has in the past two years concluded 300 audits of suppliers and factories, but the company would cooperate with any investigation.
[Source: The Telegraph]
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