Final report of a complaint in Morocco at a supplier for FWF member ALBIRO – December 2016
On 27 May 2016, a worker currently employed at a factory supplying ALBIRO claimed there were several violations, including: the employment of non-skilled workers at lower rates, not taking seniority into account for payments, lack of full payments to the Social Security Fund, deduction of transport costs from wages, and lack of holiday pay. Moreover, said the employee, these issues had not been disclosed during a BSCI audit.
The complaint was investigated in November 2016. It was found that some workers were indeed paid a lower rate, and that seniority was not reflected in the payments. Double pay slips were also found, and the payments toward the Social Security Fund were not done correctly for 14 workers. Moreover, workers were not given a permanent contract. While this is not contrary to law, FWF recommends that all workers have a written and signed contract. FWF could not establish violations regarding the deduction of transport costs, lack of holiday pay, non-payment of overtime or the employment of children.
Management at the factory indicated that currency changes, lower prices and bad investments left the factory unable to pay all necessary wages and social security costs. Therefore, FWF recommends ALBIRO to continue cooperation with the supplier, see how the supplier can be helped regarding the financial situation it is in and, most importantly investigate its own pricing policy to learn whether the prices paid support the payment of the legal minimum wages, seniority and social security.
The complainant was satisfied with the outcome of the complaints process and hopes that this process will help to bring improvements to the factory. The complainant hopes that the factory and ALBIRO will work together to uphold the law and ensure workers’ rights.
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Final report of complaint at a factory in Vietnam supplying VAUDE
According to a complainant, workers at the factory were required to work overtime without time recording and thus without adequate overtime payment. This included women who were pregnant or breastfeeding. Allegedly workers were threatened with being fired.
VAUDE contacted the supplier and asked for a reply within one week. The supplier indicated the factory does not allow workers to start working early and work during lunch time. According to management, they do not request workers who breastfeed to stay until 5 pm. Factory indicated to have adopted measures such as no electricity before 7.30 am and during lunch time and organizing a meeting with management team to implement policy for corrective actions.
The most recent audit conducted by a FWF team in April 2016 concluded several cases of excessive overtime took place between October 2015 and March 2016.FWF’s complaints handler conducted 9 offsite worker interviews on 13 November and visited the factory for a documents inspection on 16 November. Time-records were checked, and the payroll and incentive bonuses for 4 production lines were reviewed.
Overtime hours worked in case of repairing a defect was not paid correctly. Given that the line leaders could not remember which workers stayed extra time for repairing implies the regular fingerprint time-record registration was not used.The workers interviewed as part of the investigation stated recent improvements have been noticeable regarding hours of work. Factory stopped extending working hours after working time and power is shut off after 20 minutes after regular working time ends. During lunch power and light is shut off as well and workers take a rest during lunch instead of continuing their work/repairs. Workers indicated they feel happy these improvements took place and expect it to continue.
Additional workers that were interviewed in November stated they are satisfied with the improvements that took place. FWF’s complaints handler has not been able to reach the complainant again.
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Initial report of complaint at factory in China supplying Haglöfs and Kjus
On 20 September 2016, a worker contacted FWF claiming that the factory delays worker payments often, and for up to three months. The worker also claimed that there is excessive overtime for up to 11 or 12 hours a day, and sometimes without getting a rest day. The complainant said that as of 20 September, they had had approximately 10 days off. Workers who refuse to work overtime can do so without penalty but are subject to warnings from their supervisors.
The case is under investigation. The claims made by the complainant are supported by an audit from November 2015 where excessive overtime and late payment were found.
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Intermediate report of complaint in India at a factory supplying Nudie Jeans – August 2016
Between May 2015 and July 2016, 8 workers were dismissed or terminated by the factory. Six of them approached FWF with a complaint between January and July 2016.
The complainants claim that they were dismissed for small violations such as engaging in verbal conflict with co-workers. They claim that they were unable to defend themselves from the allegations, and that the disciplinary action did not follow formal legal procedures.
They further allege that the real reasons they were dismissed from their job was that they had supposedly engaged in unionisation efforts, or that they frequently refused to work overtime after 18:00.
During investigation, already in January 2016, FWF was unable to reach a conclusion, as management claimed workers left on their own volition. The first complaint was closed, but other workers came forward in July 2016, sharing similar stories.
Upon further investigation in July, a pattern of common issues was found, including lack of legal domestic enquiry and lack of opportunity for workers to defend themselves.
FWF required Nudie Jeans to discuss these and other findings with management, to ensure that all cases are re-assessed and structural findings remediated.
FWF will contact all workers at a later stage to verify whether their cases were re-assessed and solved in a legally compliant manner. FWF will conduct a verification audit in 2017 to assess whether structural remediation steps have been implemented.
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Final report on complaint at factory in India supplying DW-Shop
On 10 July 2016, a worker who was dismissed from the factory claimed that he had been working there since 2013. He allegedly took a one-month leave on 11 February, but did not return to his position until 9 June. Management had replaced him upon his return, and did not want to take him back. The worker accepted the dismissal, and asked manager for his full and final payment and his social security forms so he could collect social security. He was told to return two days later. The payment and the social security form did not materialise after he returned to the factory.
The worker called the FWF complaint handler again on 12 July and informed that he had been to the factory and met with management. He then said that he had been paid in full and that he had complained so hec could be reinstated.
On 13 July, DW-Shop received an email from the factory where they claimed the worker had been paid in full on 8 June, but that they were unable to rehire them.
On 15 July, FWF called the worker to verify the situation. The worker stated that he had been called by management and been offered a lump sum–lower than the sum mentioned by the factory–and made to sign a blank form. He accepted as he needed the money. He only wanted further help getting his form to collect social security payments.
Taking into account that the worker communicated to FWF that he accepted is dismissal, FWF’s impression is that it is likely that the worker was asked to sign a blank paper in exchange for a lesser amount.
As the worker was not available for further follow-up, FWF has closed the complaint. The claims regarding excessive overtime and lack of formal contracts/regular wage slips are difficult to verify without further investigation. They are however consistent with previous audit findings.
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Final report of complaint at a factory in India supplying Takko
On 3 August 2016, a former worker presented a complaint against a factory claiming that, after complaining about excessive overtime, the worker was told to stay home on the day of a visit by a FWF auditor. This led the worker to resign. Further, it was unclear whether this overtime was paid at the established rate.
On 5 August, FWF auditors visited the factory to investigate the complaint, interviewing more than 18 workers, and conducting a visual inspection among other measures.
Based on all information collected during the investigation, FWF concluded that the complaint was not grounded. The complaint is now considered closed.
The complainant was informed of the outcome, and said to have learnt from workers still employed at the factory that the HR manager called a meeting after the visit by FWF to ask workers to approach him
instead of calling the FWF hotline in case of complaints.
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Final report of complaint in Vietnam at a factory where VAUDE sources – august 2016
The complainant claimed working hours in July were until 8 or 9 pm two or three times a week. According to the complainant workers were requested to leave the factory after 5 pm, check out with their fingerprint and return back to work without fingerprint timerecord registration. During those hours overtime premium would not be paid. In addition, the complainant stated the high production targets lead to high pressure. As a result, workers shorten their lunch time and continue their work. Workers are said to have requested the factory to turn off the light during lunch break in order to have a short nap for better production in the afternoon.
Overtime hours in cases of repairing a defect was not paid correctly. Given that the line leaders cannot remember which workers stayed extra time for repairing implies the regular fingerprint time-record registration was not used. It is therefore not clear which workers exactly were working the additional hours. Factory did announce to all workers they can approach HR department to request the overtime reimbursement. And the complainant confirmed the overtime hours were now paid correctly.
Complaints handler spoke to the complainant again who confirmed overtime premium was paid. Verification of reducing pressure by the high production targets that makes workers continue work during lunch time is still ongoing.
Additional workers that were interviewed in November stated they are satisfied with the improvements that took place. FWF’s complaints handler spoke to the complainant again and shared the improvements on not extending working hours and no light during lunch time were noticeable.
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Final report of complaint in Bangladesh at factory that supplies Fristad Kansas & Sols – January 2016
On 13 January 2016 FWF’s local complaints handler received a complaint from 29 employees recently under suspension of the factory since 6 December 2015.
According to the complainant, factory management had allegedly misbehaved by, for example, denying access to drinking water during working hours, severe verbal abuse, unpaid overtime and unfair dismissal of a floor level management staff. No improvements were made after addressing the issues to the management. The workers decided to protest against the management in November 2015.
This case is related to the labour standards of FWF’s Code of Labour Practices ‘Payment of a living wage’, ‘Reasonable working hours’, ‘Occupational health and Safety’ and ‘Legally binding employment relationship’.
FWF informed Fristads Kansas Group and Solo Invest S.A.S about the complaint. Fristads Kansas Group discussed this case with the management of the factory during a visit in February 2016.
The factory conducted an investigation. The internal investigation showed that the complainants had stirred up unrest among the workers and damaged factory properties during a protest. The factory concluded that it was justified that the workers were fired and decided not to drop the case against the complainants. The factory was open for further investigation by FWF.
The complainants disagree with the findings of the factory management and have decided to seek justice through the local authority, labour bureau of the district government. FWF and the complainants agreed to wait for the investigation and conclusion of the local authority. At the moment no investigation is set up by FWF.
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Final REPORT COMPLAINT IN India AT FACTORY SUPPLYING Nudie jeans
In June 2015, six weeks after an audit, FWF received a complaint through its local complaints handler in India from a worker from a factory supplying Nudie Jeans. The complainant claimed that the factory has not paid last month’s salary to several workers, some of whom left the factory because of this. According to the complainant, those workers were threatened by management not to complain to anyone. The worker also stated that there was verbal abuse, forced overtime and that during the FWF audit, the factory hid the fact that it operates hostels for its workers.
During the investigation, the supplier admitted that there had been some cases of late payments in the past months due to outstanding payments of a non-FWF member. It did not, initially, respond to the other allegations. The investigation showed that there were grounds for most of the allegations, though most of them could not be proven definitively. A remediation plan was drafted, which included a root cause analysis of overtime by the factory and Nudie Jeans together, as well as implementing a process for increasing wages.
In January 2016, FWF verified that all complainants had received due payment. Further remediation will be verified at the next FWF audit at the factory, and during the next Brand Performance Check at Nudie Jeans.
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