Clothing giant Uniqlo has not improved abusive working conditions or done enough to stop environment damage caused by its factories in mainland China, according to four labour rights groups in China, including Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM). This comes despite Uniqlo having acknowledged the problems months ago.
Speaking about the problem, Sophie Chen, Project Officer, SACOM stated, “In the [Corporate Social Responsibility] report issued by Uniqlo on 31 July, the company admitted to some of the issues, made changes such as lowering the shop floor temperature by bettering ventilation and installing troughs to direct the sewage water, [but] the condition of illegal overtime work remained rampant.”
There have been cases where factories allegedly collected fine from workers who failed to meet job requirements, where workplace safety has been ignored and in one case, workers were forced to work without holidays from mid-March to mid-May—accumulating 176 hours of overtime, exceeding the limit of 36 hours.
In response to the claims, Beryl Tung, Spokesman, Fast Retailing Co—Uniqlo’s parent company stated, “Respecting human rights and ensuring appropriate working conditions for the employees of Fast Retailing’s production partners is a top priority. Since this January, Fast Retailing has been enhancing its monitoring and advancing working conditions at the garment factories managed by its production partners.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
