You might think that a luxury apparel company could afford to make sure that the workers in its supply chain are treated with a bit more class. However, the French company PPR apparently thinks this is a luxury.
PPR is the world’s third-largest luxury group and among other luxury brands, the group has a 99% stake in Italian luxury goods company Gucci Group. The group’s other activities include Conforama chain of household furniture and appliance stores, auto sales in Africa through CFAO, and the German athletic shoemaker PUMA.
The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) states that “reports from trade unions and NGOs from Eastern Europe and all across Asia confirm PPR’s practice of producing goods in workplaces that violate local and international labor laws, leading to a downward spiral in living standards for workers.”
CCC cites many examples to support their claims including:
Philippines The majority of the 300 workers at this factory are employed under temporary status as apprentice workers. These workers are paid below the legal minimum, earning 65% of the legally required daily wage [US$3.25, rather than the legally required US$4.97]. This temporary status lasts well beyond the six-month maximum permitted by Philippine law.
India One PPR supplier subcontracts women workers to sew garments in their own homes. They are paid by how many garments they sew, often earning less than one cent per garment. Homeworkers say that company supervisors often subject them to verbal and sexual harassment. And since in many families the whole family works on the garments, it is extremely likely that child labor is involved.
Thailand At factories in Bangkok, girls as young as 16 years old work up to 17 hours per day, for wages as low as $4 per day. Workers are forced to pay a large share of their earnings back to the company to purchase their uniforms and tools and to live in crowded, company-owned housing. “We have investigated working conditions at over 100 factories in Thailand. The working conditions at the two PPR suppliers are among the worst.”-Junya Yimprasert, Director,Thai Labour Campaign, Bangkok Thailand
Pakistan A recent survey of garment factories in Pakistan where clothes are produced for PPR’s Redcats division found hundreds of workers in factories around the city, some only in their early teens, facing abusive and exploitive conditions on the job, with workers at times working weeks without any days off.
CCC concludes that PPR’s policies are not reflected in their practices. “PPR claims that it is socially responsible. Its Ethics Charter espouses loyalty, integrity and transparency. But PPR’s top management casts doubt on the company’s commitment to taking social responsibility, and workers’ rights, seriously.
Thomas Kamm, PPR’s director of institutional relations, told Le Monde: “We cannot be behind over 2,000 suppliers and an equal number of subcontractors.”” CCC disagrees and states that PPR has the power to end abusive practices among its suppliers, but the company does not appear willing to do so.
Apparently PPR is too busy luxuriating.
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