PAY FAIR – PLAY FAIR
A living wage is a human right, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Recently, there has been growing attention about the 21 million people who are victims of forced labor. People want to know where the clothes are made and what conditions these people are working in.
ADIDAS
Adidas is a German multinational corporation, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second biggest in the world.
It is the holding company for the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company, Bayern Munich and Runtastic, . Adidas revenue for 2016 was listed at $39.6 billion with a labuor of 53’000 employees.
The company's clothing and shoe designs typically feature
three parallel bars, and the same motif is incorporated into
Adidas's current official logo.
Adidas group has taken in consideration the living wage
problems concerned with exploitation in Asia.
But in November 2014, Clean Clothes Campaign met with a senior figure from Adidas. At the meeting they talked about Adidas’ approach to wage and the possibility of signing a wage agreement in order to negotiate for better pay. Adidas agreed with it, and it could provide something that will be a benefit, although it didn’t commit to sign itself. In August 2015 Adidas also agreed to re-open discussions with unions in Indonesia over issues with short term contracts.
They think to find a solution for the improvement of general welfare of workers working with the business partners in order to promote transparent wage and working condition.
Adidas carry out accurate wage studies in selected countries and they understood that they have Fair Wage evaluation in progress in five different low wage countries . Adidas currently uses the legal minimum wage or prevailing industry wage as a benchmark to check if its factories are paying a fair wage
At the beginning Adidas has not changed its policy or come out with any new statements on living wages.
Even if Adidas is a big company, it has to work hard on living wage strategy, and it continues to control its supplier factories paying in living wage. Adidas says that it is examining the question of fair wage, in order to learn more about it and finding a favourable solution.
Adidas MUST improve a lot before considering itself a fair company, which offer fair and respectable wage, but Adidas is on the road to improve his goal.
History
Gucci is an Italian luxury brand of fashion and leather goods, which is owned by the French company Kering.
It was found in 1921 by Guccio Gucci in Florence.
Gucci manages 278 stores around the world since September 2009 and markets its products through franchising and department stores.
In 2013, the brand was valued at $ 12.1 billion, with sales of $ 4.7 billion.
In the Forbes World's Most Valuable Brands list, Gucci occupies the 38th most valuable brand with a brand value of $ 12.4 billion since May 2015.
It is the biggest-selling Italian brand.
Why is it bad?
“Gucci Responds To Worker Exploitation Charges in Television Report”
In 2014, Italian fashion house Gucci said that it would strengthen controls on its suppliers after a television program showed Chinese employees working more than three times their official hours to assemble its handbags.
The head of a Gucci subcontractor told an investigative program, broadcast by RAI state television, that Gucci was aware its irregularly employed Chinese workers.
The subcontractor, of “Mondo Libero”, said the employees worked up to 14 hours a day to assemble handbags, while they were supposed to work only for 4 hours.
These handbags were sold to Gucci for € 24,00 but they sold them in shops for around $1000.
In a statement responding to the "Report" TV show, Gucci said it had already acted properly but promised to raise the number of inspections at its suppliers and take more effective action where needed.
Working conditions in factories producing clothes and accessories have become an increasingly global issue since activists make campaigns against long hours and low wages in developing countries.
The Italian fashion house declared it had carried out numerous inspections at "Mondo Libero", which is based near Florence.
The supplier had proved that it faced and mostly solved irregularities in working conditions.
The statement said that the hidden and inappropriately used cameras, shooting carefully selected supplier companies, do not provide a true or accurate representation of Gucci and its supply chain policies and procedures.
Living Wage and Minimum Wage
GUCCI is SA8000 certified since 2007.
In this standard, the compliance with the Living Wage is one of the
requirements that has to be satisfied: it hasn't a living-wage benchmarks
and it hasn't a concrete strategy as a solution. The Italian design house has been accused with a legal class action for having failed to adequately compensate its employees.
The complaint, which was deposited in the Superior Court of the State of California in Los Angeles, on behalf of themselves and other unnamed employees who worked at the Californian retail outlets of the brand, argues that Gucci failed to pay minimum and overtime wages, and failed to provide employees with rest and meal periods, in addition to an array of other violations of the California Labor Code and the California Business and Professions Code.
The named plaintiffs, who worked at Gucci's Beverly Hills location, claim that there are more than 75 other employees that have been subjected to Gucci's illegal employment practices.
Not only the named complainant are asking for monetary damages, but they are also asking the court to certify their class action.
SITOGRAPHY:
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2048307/Gucci-store-workers-China-Abused-badly-suffered-miscarriages.html
• http://www.thefashionlaw.com/home/gucci-hit-with-class-action-lawsuit-over-wage-and-labor-violations
• https://cleanclothes.org/resources/publications/living-wage-now-magazine
