'Nike, Adidas factories still overworked, underpaid'

["Ulhas Joglekar" <joglekarulhas@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Times of India

THURSDAY, MARCH 07, 2002

'Nike, Adidas factories still overworked, underpaid'

REUTERS

JAKARTA: Sportswear giants Nike and Adidas-Salomon have taken steps to shed
their sweatshop image in Indonesia but employees are still overworked and
underpaid, a leading aid agency said.

Australia-based Oxfam Community Aid Abroad released a report on Thursday
saying the rival companies had responded to international pressure from
rights groups and aid agencies to improve working conditions, but had not
done enough.

"Our feeling is that changes have occurred but they 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,"
Timothy Connor, author of the report, We Are Not Machines, said over
telephone from Sydney.

"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.

The report, conducted between July last and January 2002, is based on the
accounts of 35 workers from four factories producing for both companies in
West Java.

Connor said the aim of the report was to assess whether there had been any
progress in working conditions since the previous report in September 2000.

The report 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 workers feared active union involvement could lead to
dismissal, being jailed or physically assaulted.

Image-conscious Nike and Adidas have come under mounting pressure in recent
years over the treatment of staff in Asian factories subcontracted to
produce the bulk of their sporting shoes.

Connor said most of the Nike and Adidas factories operating in Indonesia
were mainly owned by Taiwanese and Koreans.

Company executives were not immediately available for comment.

Nike, the world's number one athletic shoe company, has 11 factories in
Indonesia which produce between 45-55 million pairs of shoes a year. Only
two percent go to the local market, while most end up in the United States.

Smelly bathrooms: Adidas worker Ngadinah, 30, said conditions at her factory
were hot and crowded but felt the negotiating power of her union, the
Footwear Workers' Association (PERBUPAS), was slowly growing.

"The bathroom is very smelly and workers are forced to work late into the
night when the company needs to meet deadlines," Ngadinah told reporters
earlier this week.

Ngadinah, secretary of the union and who was featured in the report, is paid
a base monthly salary of 590,000 rupiah ($59.38).

"Just recently the company has given us the chance to have training for
members, before, this was not possible," she said.

Ngadinah was jailed for a month in 2001 for organising a strike that was
joined by most of her 8,000 factory colleagues whose demands included being
paid overtime at the legal rate.

The report said Nike had also made improvements on union matters. It said
those factories with independent unions now had offices and met with union
leaders on a regular basis.

Copyright © 2001 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.