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IOC must raise its game, says PlayFair 2008
18 Jun '07
4 min read
The conduct of the promised investigation by the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) is also a matter for concern, according to PlayFair. Rather than ensuring that the factories concerned respect workers rights and remedy all the violations outlined in the report, including compensating the workers for wages and entitlements they have been denied, BOCOG is threatening to cancel contracts with the four factories highlighted in the report.
Other buyers are also called upon to maintain their orders and work with the factories and stakeholders, including local labour groups, to improve conditions.
"The workers in these factories have suffered enough" said Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation. "The IOC should not stand by and and allow the Beijing Organizing Committee to simply run away from this issue. Four years have been lost since we first took this up with the IOC. Now is the time for them to sit down with us and sort the problem out."
The letter to the IOC again calls upon it to work together with the PlayFair 2008 organisations to develop and implement proposals to ensure labour rights compliance throughout all Olympics merchandise supply chains, in China and elsewhere, rather than the approach which the IOC seems to be planning to take, which is exclusively company-based and leaves no room for the workers concerned to involve trade unions and worker support groups.
The problems described in the PlayFair 2008 report are common in the sector throughout the world, and by no means limited to China nor to the four factories mentioned in the report. As a global campaign network, PlayFair 2008 will continue to challenge companies, the Olympic family and governments to make a global effort to end the exploitation and abuse of workers in sports merchandise worldwide.
Other buyers are also called upon to maintain their orders and work with the factories and stakeholders, including local labour groups, to improve conditions.
"The workers in these factories have suffered enough" said Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation. "The IOC should not stand by and and allow the Beijing Organizing Committee to simply run away from this issue. Four years have been lost since we first took this up with the IOC. Now is the time for them to sit down with us and sort the problem out."
The letter to the IOC again calls upon it to work together with the PlayFair 2008 organisations to develop and implement proposals to ensure labour rights compliance throughout all Olympics merchandise supply chains, in China and elsewhere, rather than the approach which the IOC seems to be planning to take, which is exclusively company-based and leaves no room for the workers concerned to involve trade unions and worker support groups.
The problems described in the PlayFair 2008 report are common in the sector throughout the world, and by no means limited to China nor to the four factories mentioned in the report. As a global campaign network, PlayFair 2008 will continue to challenge companies, the Olympic family and governments to make a global effort to end the exploitation and abuse of workers in sports merchandise worldwide.
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