UMBRO: More is needed to move up the ethical league
Friday, 16 July 2004 00:00
With Euro 2004 as well as the Olympic Games on this year’s sport calendar, LBL is focusing on UMBRO, calling on the sportswear company to significantly improve respect of workers’ rights in its supply chain.
Umbro supplies kits to the national football teams of Norway, Sweden, Ireland and England as well as to clubs such as Chelsea, Celtic and Sao Paulo. It also sponsors Michael Owen. The UK, where it has a 33% share of the replica kit market, is its biggest market for sportswear.
Since it was sold in 1999 to private company Doughty Hanson, Umbro’s profits have quadrupled from £5m to £20m in 2003, mainly as a result of cheaper sourcing in Asia. Sales in 2003 stood at £310m. In June 2004, the company was floated on the London stock exchange, a move expected to leave CEO Peter McGuigan with a stake worth around £10m.
There have been no such windfalls for the workers producing footballs, replica kits and sportswear for Umbro.
In 1999, goods labelled ‘made in Greece’ were being made for Umbro in a Bulgarian factory where women workers reported earning £50 to £65 a month. In 2000, researchers estimated that a living wage was £80 for a single worker and over £300 for a family of four. The women were often required to work weekends and risked being fired if they turned down overtime.
In 2000, Umbro was found to source footwear from companies in Vietnam which paid its workers around £20 a month. Although the workers were in receipt of some benefits, a living wage was estimated to be at £80 for a family of three.
In 2002, the Hong Kong Industrial Christian Committee found that young workers making footballs for Umbro in a factory in Southern China were having to work on average 13 to 14 hours a day, six and a half days a week.
The workers were paid piece rate but none of those interviewed knew the price paid per football or could explain how their wages were calculated. Overtime was not paid and workers were often paid below the legal minimum wage in the low season. There were instances of (illegal) fines imposed when workers were late for work.
In October 2002, the owners of Bed and Bath Prestige, a Thai company producing sportswear for Umbro among others, suddenly shut down their factory owing workers £265,000 in wages and redundancy pay. Prior to closure, the factory had made heavy demands of workers, handing out amphetamines when they had to work through the night to complete orders. Following a long, international campaign for compensation, it was left to the Thai government to eventually pay workers the equivalent of four months’ wages, less than many were owed.
In 2003, workers at an Indonesian factory supplying Umbro reported:
- having to work shifts as long as 17 hours over six consecutive days to meet deadlines
- temporary workers (25% of the workforce) being paid half the standard wage and forced to do unpaid overtime when they could not complete their targets in normal working hours;
- sexual harassment and verbal abuse
- exhaustion, which occasionally led to miscarriages.
None of the workers interviewed knew about codes of conduct or were aware of any inspections having taken place. Trade union activists were frequently intimidated, harassed and unfairly dismissed.
In 2003, in three Chinese factories supplying footwear to Umbro, workers said they were frequently made to work seven days a week in the peak season. In one factory, workers reported working 120 hours’ overtime in October 2003 - three times in excess of Chinese laws - and being prevented from resigning during the peak season.
In another, wages had dramatically fallen compared with three years ago and piece rate workers said they were not paid the legal minimum wage in the low season, though payroll records claimed that they were. Workers told how they had been coached to tell inspectors that they worked a regular eight-hour day and less than three hours’ overtime when in fact they had worked an average of 15 hours a day in the peak season.
Attempts to establish independent trade unions in China are repressed, often through imprisonment. Only the official union is recognised and going on strike is illegal.
Labour Behind the Label calls on Umbro to:
work with suppliers and share with them the responsibility of improving working conditions
communicate in clear terms to suppliers that it expects trade union rights to be enforced
invest in inspection systems which involve workers and provide safe complaint mechanisms
negotiate prices and delivery times which enable decent wages and reasonable working hours
join with other trade unions, NGOs and other brands in a sector-wide programme to improve conditions in the industry’s supply chains.
The company’s response
The combination of an international Olympic campaign (extensive media coverage in Norway was instrumental in getting Umbro to make its first move) and of LBL’s campaign coinciding with the flotation of Umbro shares on the London stock market finally spurred Umbro into responding constructively.
Umbro met on 10 June with Agung Hermawan and factory worker Neneng in London. They agreed to investigate discrepancies between Neneng's testimony and what Umbro’s representative had seen himself when visiting Neneng’s factory. Although conditions at this factory are not as poor as in other Indonesian factories supplying Umbro, the law is nevertheless breached with regard to overtime (underpaid and compulsory), compensation for work-related injuries, health and safety and menstruation leave (a religious requirement in Indonesia) and wages, although meeting the legal minimum, are low.
Umbro also met on 14 June with representatives of the Olympic campaign, and agreed to:
work further on the implementation of its code of conduct;
investigate the impact of its buying practices on workers' rights;
regularly meet with the International, Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation and UK campaigners to discuss progress.
Umbro has also recently applied for membership of the Fair Labour Association.
It is crucial that we continue to put pressure on Umbro so that these developments translate into concrete and significant changes on the factory floor.
