Toxic Labels: What is Behind Cheap Clothes | Textile Industry | Fashion | ENDEVR Documentary

How come when you buy something you ever really wonder how it's made right? It's generally

what

you expect, think about it. You have 12 minutes for lunch, so you buy a ham sandwich. The bread is made by this guy with a mustache you know. So it's great, it looks and feels good and yes the packaging is soft to the touch. Inside there is a slice of ham that is from a pig that comes from a farm. In fact, that's not a question you can ask and you just have to. There are 6 minutes left until lunch. Otherwise, you have a sudden desire to buy

clothes

for young Luke and Maggie.

You run to the children's clothing store, which you know and trust, after all, says the shorts from which the t-shirt and skirt were made. ethically, the fair trade code was respected, no underage workers were allowed and decent hours were paid, of course, now you believe it if they tell you that very nice

clothes

for 12 year old Luke and Maggie were made by living children of the same age. and working in terrible conditions 72 hours a week and for only $45 a month, well, you'd find it hard to believe, wouldn't you? You can react in two different ways, one could say great, the little boy on the other side of the world.

You're lucky I've already found a job or you might think that brand has violated all international laws and maybe taken a little advantage of my trust. It was fun, it was exciting, an unforgettable experience like yours at Cash. We choose the second option. Have you noticed how the price of clothing has dropped these days. You can buy clothes for winter, spring and all seasons without overdraft. It seems that these low-cost outlets abound. According to the French Fashion Institute, the price of women's ready-to-wear clothing has fallen. % in the last 10 years for many years the workshop of the world where these

cheap

clothes were made has been China, of course, but now Chinese workers are demanding better paid conditions, so Western brands have been looking elsewhere , like Bangladesh in the Indian subcontinent, which in just a few years has become the second largest exporter of clothing to much of Europe made in Bangladesh seems to be in full

fashion

, the weekend is the perfect time for a quick expedition shopping at Europe's new Backstreet supplier according to the country's tourist board this is

what

Bangladesh is like happy workers picking tea crops at night musicians serenade visitors with the sound of their ekas a kind of guitar a single string people lead a happy life children spend their days flying kites on wonderful beaches an earthly paradise Welcome to beautiful Bangladesh, in fact nothing in the advertisement resembles real life in the country that is about 7,000 kilometers from Europe. 15 million souls are crammed into the capital, a highly polluted megalopolis with the highest population density in the world.

Bangladesh is also one of the poorest countries in the world. where slum children are more likely to play in the wasteland than on sandy beaches, about half of the country's 152 million people survive on less than $150 a day, labor is incredibly

cheap

, ideal for the

textile

industry

and an

industry

that now accounts for 80% of all Bangladesh exports every day, 3.6 million workers sew and sew on an endless assembly line, labor here is largely feminine part to find the

textile

plants at a good price, simply follow your nose to the dusty multi-story tiles beneath the straight neon lines. Lighting Officially there are 4,000 buildings of this type spread throughout the city.

In reality, there are probably twice that number, but getting into these workshops where the workforce is often locked up during working hours is no easy task. In recent years, journalists who have tried have been expelled. out of control, so throughout our investigation we pose as potential buyers, we also need a good guide and the one we have has been in the textile business for over a decade. You run a company that inspects suppliers and makes sure they follow labor laws. Now Fixer doesn't mind being filmed, but prefers to use an alias while we're in the country.

My name is m, don't forget, hey, I use that name when I work. You see, I don't have a bodyguard, that's why I use another one. name and thanks to manir the doors open before us sorry every 12 pieces what $1.8 not $18 here are the changing rooms of textile globalizations here is a brand this one you know so this is where Ikea goes shopping to dress its employees and in another workshop this is Sara we'll get back to this soon meanwhile here's a pair of men's shorts from Zara's rival H&M, after 48 hours we're heading North darling with a hidden camera and still pretending to be Byers, We continued our little wetting farce.

The foreman holds up several samples of can I S one and offers us a pair of striped shorts for women, very nice. Mon is French, yes, Monop. Everyone in France knows Monoi. They are all over the country. It is one of the most popular stores in French cities. With a good reputation, its website boasts a million visitors to its stores every day, selling everything from organic vegetables to the latest

fashion

s for men, women, children and babies. It is a family run store and inspires confidence in its products in Dhaka, the owners of this factory that monoi supplies welcome us to their office nor for me also we still have our camera hidden in the hangers more products intended for monoy can I take a look yes yes great yes monoy also this is a woman's bread for Moni yes B yes this one also no The monoi Bu Sho line is for babies, this is from this year's collection, okay, yes, this is in mono PRI, in fact, okay, yes, yes.

Simon is really a big customer of Buu cfk oron of the three monoi clothing brands and this manager seems to be responsible for French Customers, he is proud to count monoi as one of his loyal customers, a very loyal customer that we work for B the last 9 years 9 years, okay, so this is a big client for you, yeah, because all year round we work for them, so it must be. a good, a good factory, if every year they come back to you and say we are good, then we are good, yes, yes, okay, we can't say we are good because we have no complaints, we support monop piic with almost half of its volume in Bangladesh.

They completely trust us and even allow us to film openly as part of our business visit. No more ladies with hidden cameras, pay good attention here exclusively for you. The monoi spring summer collection, including these gorgeous striped pants, is coming to a monoi store near you. Just one month. For only €30 I'm showing you one, yes, I need it and yes, this one is also now available in France. Also for €30 it is actually very reasonable, in fact, now let's get serious and go to the workshop, the buyers we intend to be want. check the quality what we really want to see are the working conditions of the 1100 people who work in this factory on the second floor, three rows are working exclusively on the new children's collection of Monor, according to the managers, the French company has never had nothing.

What to complain about because here, dear lady, working hours are respected, you know 82 8 82 825 is worth 825 another two are better, that is, a 60-hour work week in accordance with local practice, we also comply with our own labor practices and we search the faces of all these conscientious dressmakers, this one for example or that one, we wonder how old these girls are: 18, the minimum age required by Bangladesh law to work 60 hours a week, or are they 14, which is the legal age to start working here. but only for 36 hours a week, do you think it's not easy to judge?

In Bangladesh, is the law quite clear? No one under 14 years of age can work in a factory. We would have liked to ask this very young girl. age, but as shoppers we are not allowed to talk to the staff and it is too sensitive a question to ask the managers who never leave us for more than a second, actually, look back on the left, he is our guardian angel in the blue. and white checkered shirt looking directly into our camera we will see him again that night they will politely escort us to our cars a few days later we return to the monoi factory inside the lights means that everyone is still working to save time, it's almost 8: 00 p.m. 10 minutes later, the first of the staff begins to leave, even taking into account overtime, they should have left work at least an hour earlier.

There is a 45 minute walk to get to what passes for home. The Bash, former slums. Dark alleys. Typical tin huts from almost anywhere. Shanty Town 20,000 people live here, all of them below the poverty line. Our guide located several Mony Factory employees. Here, come here, join us under the white veil. Did you see them at the factory? She remembers us. So Hy has been working at the factory for about a year and a half so she can afford her pitiful Lighted Dance Shack that she shares with her mother. We set out to ask Aki the questions she has.

She's been bothering us. How old is she? 17. She will soon be 17. Aki is certainly old enough to work, but are labor laws respected for a minor like her? What time did you start work this morning at 8:00 and finish at 8 p.m.? how many days a week six days a week 6 days out of seven 12 hours a day Aki therefore works for 72 hours a week twice the legally stipulated time and in complete disregard of national and international laws to ensure that Aki actually worked at the monor prea factory we showed him the video we filmed at his workplace do you recognize that model there you see this do you recognize this oh yeah that's on production line B or C and Aki worked on the shorts a paintings for babies that we saw in it?

The boss's office recognizes this yes, what did you do? Oh, I worked in sewing our visit begins to attract more and more local buyers with a camera visiting the workers in the middle of a suspicious slum, a man appears from the darkness and intervenes. tell them that the working conditions inside the factory are good, as Mun says that the man came from the factory, he looks like our guardian angel, you remember the guy in the blue plaid shirt and here he is in the room the young woman, how did they know we were there? here on the phone so we may have some problems with this guy the man's insistent presence restricts our visit to protect Akie and his mother we decide to leave our search for other factory workers continues in the slum bazaars at the bend of this alley we have another meeting scheduled in green and blue this is Kadija behind her is her friend shines oh man they are neighbors both in the poor neighborhood and at work yes, the same factory as the monkey factory and this time following behind the slight shadow of Kad we don't waste time asking what we consider to be the question, how old are you?

I'm 14 years old 14 I think you're 12 or 13, okay, I'm 12, in fact, Kadija doesn't know if she's 12, 13 or 14, she doesn't have a birth certificate and In Bangladesh, common birth registration became mandatory only in 2004. The conversation continues in Kad's house, a makeshift roof with a rickety wall, the year before she left the school classroom to start working to pay for the shack where she lives with her parents, who are too sick to work since then. So Kadija, the girl from Bashan's poor neighborhood, has been clocking in at the textile plant as an adult. What time do you start working at the factory at 8:00 and finish at?

I finish at 8 at night, okay? And how many days do I work six days a day? week, so it's at least 72 hours a week and sometimes 7 days a week, as his work card shows, and it's all from making clothes for monor PRI. Does she know? Has she worked on any other clothing from the brand? Yes, some others. what other models have they worked on for the same brand what did they do, for example, the pants and shorts, things like that and that was when that was before, yes, how long ago, a month, no, a month, uh, two weeks, I admit that we worked on those, they also made them because I can't go to school and playing with the other girls who work in the factory is like being in prison but I have to say that my parents are poor it would have been fine if this had been a nightmare that really It was just a bad dream that girls like this are forced by poverty to work as adults in a store that a million people a day go to in France and there are Charters in France that are designed to stop this kind of thing . of things happening, including one signed by the largest French stores, of which monoi was one, yes, in fact, it is known as SEI, the Social Clause initiative and dates back to 199 8 text The Clash uncomfortable with the In reality, what they can do for us is give usan interview we had requested to talk to management about the issue of child labor at their largest supplier in Bangladesh 3 weeks later Cecil CL monoi Director of Human Resources, communication and sustainable development agrees to see us, let's get started, we just returned from Bangladesh and we investigated a factory working for you there, Chittagong Fashion Millennium Textile Limited, have you been there?

Has anyone from Monoi ever been to Bangladesh? In fact, Moni has been to Bangladesh. We send our textile experts there and it is up to them to speak. with suppliers about product quality, so it is not their responsibility to check the social aspects of how factories are run. You have made some very serious statements and, if they are proven to be true, let me assure you that they would be unacceptable to Moni, they would go against the values ​​and rules in which we believe and against the principles that we have asked our suppliers to guarantee. . Now we were surprised by the conditions of the workforce that produces clothing for the monoi group and the conc of their work, how can you?

Please explain that the Mon group has been working with the same factory for years and why it has to be us at the cash production company who inform you. I should have been aware of this a long time ago. We have been working with this factory for several years and they signed an ethical contract but they apparently ignore it well, at least to the extent that you claim that the facts appear to be very serious and, if true, it would indicate that they are in fact not honoring our contract , we are treating this matter that you have brought to our attention with the greatest urgency.

We have immediately stopped production at the factory and started an audit to find out what is happening there, so it is about getting to the root of the problem, finding out who is responsible and taking necessary action. Let me give you some details about the On the ground there is Aki who is a 17 year old girl who has been working for more than a year in the factory that produces clothes for the monoi group, it means that she was just under 16 years old when she started working specifically in these plaid shorts we brought back. from Bangladesh and we are sure that she helped produce these are a pair of shorts for the children's line and the label is here and you can clearly see that they were made for your company.

Do you think it is acceptable for a 16 year old girl to work in this factory 72 hours a week to produce clothes that are sold in their stores and that we buy, let me be clear, it is absolutely unacceptable and completely contrary to what monoi demands of your suppliers, yes, but to be honest, it is unacceptable that we are Those who have to inform you about this, let me be quite clear and I think it is important that people who see this report understand that these products will not be on our shelves. So they will retire them, so production has stopped, but We are removing them from the shells, yes, obviously, they will retire them.

I'm going to actually show you the face of a girl, a very young girl, her name is Kad and this is now clearly child labor, since this girl is no longer attending. a school and she works in a factory that produces clothes for monoi, all I can say is that this video with her face is, in fact, totally unacceptable. Our audit will include objective checks of all personnel files when we present you with facts like these you are surprised, you are shocked, it is not a question of whether you are surprised or not, the question is how do we move forward from here and how a company can work with a supplier to ensure that it meets acceptable standards, in testimony of which monoi formally undertakes to strengthen its controls on suppliers is a matter of honor and above all reputation in Bangladesh the textile industry can go even further and playing with the lives of her employees a few days before our departure a young woman named Sarah comes to let us know that she is volunteering for a local NGO and for several weeks she has been investigating what could become a major health scandal in her country.

Following their example, we take this sandy road to the source of the epidemic in the Savar area, on the outskirts of Daka, the workers of Cap City with their faces covered in dust stand outside these discreet Workshops the cause of the contagion is in the back of this hanger where they work in the smallest room here in the darkness with very high temperatures Shadows fluttering like in a ballet from hell they called them The sand men with their homemade high-pressure hoses clean the raw jeans with sand to give them that vintage look so popular around the world.

The daily treatment involves 23 genes per hour, 12 hours a day. How long has this worker been employed here? 4 years, four years, okay? and how many sandmen are there exactly 30 30er here the unbearable noises and the unbreathable atmosphere the sand that is everywhere is the cunning enemy of the worker pulverized against the canvas the particles filter through the fine scar of the men and settle in their lungs they run the risk of silicosis is an incurable and fatal respiratory disease, it is the reason why sandblasting has been banned in the European Union and recently in Turkey, the world's third largest exporter of genes. 52 workers have already died of silicosis in Türkiye and the lives of another 1,200 are also threatened. how many jeans are they able to produce like 500,000 500,000 it's okay to keep the men supplied there's a gigantic sand castle we wanted to see how dangerous this was where do they find it?

Experts say that the sand is of poor quality and dangerous for more than 2 thirds of it is composed of silica in crystalline form. It is a time bomb ready to explode inside the lungs of the worker. It is difficult to imagine that multinational companies allow such conditions. of work and yet the precise objective of the high pressure hoses reveals a very well-known European brand as the manager here explains okay, that has been criticized is this for the international market International Market Market which country lindex L lindex yes yes that's yes Sweden Swedish Swedish yes ok lindex is a Swedish brand similar to H&M but not as well known there are 400 lindex stores throughout northern Europe and its Scandinavian looking blonde goodwill ambassadors include actress ree Witherspoon and gwith paltro , the muse of the latest spring summer collection.

I want to order the clothes for myself fans beware, the jeans made in this workshop are for sale on lindex online for $39.95 and yet a few more clicks and the website claims that it does not use sandblasting and that even banned its use in its products in December 2010. We traced the Swedish company's route in Bangladesh until we located one of its official suppliers. The pioneer The group is one of the pioneer factories which is also situated in the jeans district of Daka and has its lindex products sandblasted in the workshop. We contact the Swedish company and request an interview after being with them for 3 weeks.

This is his last. reply confirm that they have completely banned the use of sandblasting they inform us that after checking our reports they cannot say with certainty whether the genes in question are actually for sale in their stores they thank us however and assure us that they will take even more measures strict in the future to ensure that the necessary controls are established among the slave workers of darling denim the so-called genetic epidemic is already claiming victims every week Sarah, the NGO's volunteers spend several hours accompanying sick people with mustaches to medical check-ups Hannah 8 years of sandblasting has left her lungs in tatters it's a bumpy 30 minute Rickshaw ride but we finally get to a piece of the National Institute of Lung Diseases at the Turquoise Pole it's Ryan 2 years as a sandman and he's just one of the 37 people Sarah has diagnosed as sick.

Dr. Mustafa calls the three. If we can. I am a sandblaster and you have the same symptoms, the same problems as this man. Yes, I can't run and when I try to walk. I quickly feel bad. I also find it difficult to climb stairs. The same job. The same symptoms. The same diagnosis. These two patients have the same disease most likely due to exposure to silica dust. How are they exposed to this disease right now because of their occupation? You see, there is a Shadow point, yes, in this small point, if they continue with their work, yes, then the L will be infiltrated with this kind of dust and there will be difficulty in breathing, then there will be oxygen deficiency in our body and then heart failure , respectively.

They breathe and then the heart, so they have to leave work. This is important in Dr. Mustafa's office. The word silicosis has not been mentioned directly, but the poor condition of Hanan and Ryan's lungs means that they already have the first symptoms of the disease, they are not yet 30 years old. The two men only have one option if they want to live, quit their jobs, the doctor says you should stop working, what will you do? I'll take a week off. You can do it? Yes, if I show my medical report signed by the doctor to my boss. 7 days off What are you most afraid of?

I'm afraid of having a serious illness, so why don't you quit work once and for all? I can't, that would create too many problems. I can't leave the job because that will create a lot of problems in a week Hanan will do, as he has done for the last eight years, a job that will slowly kill him in journalists' jargon, he is known as a source, that is, one or several people who secretly provide information, possibly by means of a USB key, we naturally protect our sources so as not to raise suspicions, let's say the USB key suddenly appeared as if by a miracle on our desk in the morning.

In it is a 20-page document written in English about New Delhi in India and the textile industry that was soon realized to be a confidential audit of production workshops. It is fully illustrated that his conclusions are disturbing. The legal minimum wage is ignored in 76% of cases and child labor used by a quarter of manufacturers dates back to September 2009 and was carried out by Inditex, a large organization whose name. It appears on all the Inditex pages, doesn't it mean something to you, and if we mention Zara that sounds more familiar, doesn't it? Zara is a name that makes you want to go shopping and in fact statistics show that on average everyone goes to Zara at least once every 3 weeks.

It is one of Europe's favorite clothing stores, a paradise of low-cost chic fashion. It was founded in Spain in 1975 and its success means that Inditex has become the largest textile empire on the planet with 5,527 boutiques around the world and a brand. who dresses us all Burkshire Stradivarius oo and so on in the back of this saloon is Amano Ortega, the ultra-discreet founder of Inditex, a rare glimpse of the former dressing gown manufacturer and now possessor of the fifth largest fortune in the world, his The secret is to continually renew stock and styles in a revolutionary way. business model that is now taught at Harvard Business School is called Fast fashion you are hungry go to a Fast Food Outlet you feel like shopping go to a Zara Outlet a new dress every 2 weeks a new wardrobe every 3 months at Zara you can afford it, It is really not expensive at all and represents a net profit of almost 2.5 billion dollars for Inditex so far this year, but at what cost exactly?

The answer seems to be in the confidential document that we obtained in which the Inditex teams analyze the working conditions during its assembly. In New Delhi they rate their suppliers like a school teacher would his students. A is the highest grade given to those who respect all the Ethical Charters, the lowest is D for flagrant violations such as child labor and in 2009 the 24 official index providers in New Delhi all failed and we also discovered that in the shadow Of the accredited suppliers there are an immense number of subcontractors, at least 2,000, an enormous network that extends its network throughout the city.

The document also includes a video filmed by Inditex's own inspectors. To illustrate the deplorable conditions that exist among some of the subcontractors, workshops are often dirty with unsafe electrical installations, work is often carried out in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions, but the latest video in the report shows by why Inditex wanted to keep its audit secret. In this workshop the employees sleep next to their sewing machines or more precisely on the ground floor, do they really live here how much do they earn come on get up get up and how old are they less than 16 less than 14 even and something else how could the clothing group largest in the world be part of this we ask to speak with the director of inditex France but they reject us the company rarely gives interviews to the media Plan B go to the company headquarters in Spain and ask the boss himself for an explanation we get to this five-star hotel in Madrid where the group's annual results are presented at a press conference is one of the few occasions in which theThe press can ask questions to the management of Inditex and attracts media from around the world, suddenly each camera focuses on Pablo Isa, current president of Inditex and a key player in the company's success story.

Isla looks radiant since this year, once again, his group has had an exceptional performance. Good morning everyone, first of all I want to thank our suppliers and their staff who are able to meet our demand. I would also like to thank our customers for the trust they have shown us. Pablo is right to thank his suppliers as we have some questions. that we would like to ask about them some questions from French television below and if you ask them in English, please, inditex is a leading company and we see that it has made a global commitment to sustainability and corporate social responsibility, as well as against child labor and with the implementation of legal minimum wages, could you confirm?

Now that no children work for Index, what I can tell you is that our labor code prohibits the employment of any children. If we become aware of any provider that employs children well, let me assure you that we act immediately and with the utmost authority, but Actually, I have evidence with us here that there was a report that you probably know of, which actually says that there are minor children 16 years old under 14 and they are working and we ask ourselves, would we like it. knowing why these children really work for inditex is simply a lack of vigilance or is it simply because the child is cheaper, I can guarantee you that, but let me tell you that the tone of your question seems quite offensive to me, that is what I would like say. first, second, I can guarantee that inditex does not tolerate any situation where children work and as soon as we discovered this type of situation among our supplies, immediately, but sir, this report was in 2009 and apparently nothing was done about it and It clearly says in this report that Index was aware of this, it is an audit and there were 24 companies' factories that were audited in New Delhi and it actually says there that minimum wages are not respected and that there is also child labor and those companies for those who have continued to work for Inditex, so I wonder: is it a way to reduce costs?

Are there no limits anymore? This is not what this press conference is about, so please leave us more. information and we will contact you. The tension is acceptable, but the index promises that they will consider it.our interview request meanwhile we continue our investigation into the largest textile group in the world and looking closely we finally manage to open one of its most secret doors oh the mo come right in boys For the first time and far from the confines of New Delhi, we are about to reveal another top secret document from the bowels of the Inditex system.

The document is in the form of a graph, a scale developed by the company itself to evaluate its suppliers around the world in the left column are the criteria by which the factories that work for the company are judged, for example, if a supplier employs children or does not respect minimum wages, they are penalized with 76 points for each of these transgressions, the higher the The final grade, the lower the supplier's a rank. good and D is very poor, but line 18 of the graph contains the best kept secret of the index: unauthorized subcontracting, in other words, illegal subcontracting, barely penalized with only two points, the minimum penalty, in other words, the supplier Indian who hired this subcontractor has been penalized with only two points. points, this is all quite embarrassing for Index, don't you think that the week after our first meeting in Madrid, the group finally agrees to an interview at the Zara France headquarters in Paris?

Our team is there, of course, and comes from Spain, especially Felix POA. pen inditex is Mr Clean, the company's social responsibility director, but he didn't come alone. In his wake is the general director of Zara France, followed by two crisis communication specialists and the head of communications at Index. Oh yes, the young man in jeans is our sound engineer. Okay, okay, the meeting will be closely monitored, like us, they set up their own camera to record the entire interview. where you evaluated 24 official inditex suppliers, we will see what you say together because it is quite surprising because, according to your own standards, the 24 suppliers that were audited at that time were given a d as seen everywhere in this diagram and D is the worst. rating that you can give to a supplier, I think that the basic philosophy of this report and the truth is I don't know how it came into your hands because in any case it was an internal presentation, the objective was precisely to highlight the problems between our suppliers to review each of these suppliers and we identify their problems and then we establish with them a specific schedule in which each supplier agrees to solve this or that problem, that is what we do.

This is an example of good practice, not the other way around, but there is a lot to work out here. Okay, isn't it? 24 suppliers 24 D, that means everything needs to be fixed, it means there is child labor in virtually every company and supplier, there are problems with wages, scheduling problems, hygiene problems, so when you look at it, there is a lot to fix, yes, exactly like me. I have said that we are very vigilant and actively monitor our supply chain and when we find an issue like the ones you mentioned, we take corrective action. Our attitude is that zero risk does not exist, so when we detect a problem we investigate and solve it. whatever it is and we have actually changed the attitude of engine suppliers, so of the 24 suppliers that were rated D in 2009, how many are rated today?

Well, listen carefully, I don't know, but in any case none of them are still classified. From that, I'm sure we eliminated three who had not met their commitments with the corrective measures we implemented with them and who did not want to follow our direction. We eliminated four others for commercial reasons and therefore we are currently still working with 17 of the original 24, but when you look at the report a little closer you can see something else: these 24 producers, all suppliers to Inditex, then subcontract with another 2,000 companies, so right now we see this type of spider web of suppliers.

They work for you because they ultimately work for the index group. How can 2,000 subcontractors in New Delhi be objectively monitored? It also means that there are probably another 2,000 in other parts of India, but in New Delhi alone there are at least 2,000, we are talking about subcontractors. correct yes yes subcontractors and we can say that between your subcontractors and you have done your own research on the subcontractors it shows that in 25% of the cases there was child labor involved no no what we wanted to show here was that the suppliers were subcontracting without the knowledge of our group without us having authorized their subcontractors, so we investigated the origin of this Outsourcing and as we have done in recent years we work directly with our suppliers to increase their production capacity.

Well, I want to show you another document because it is very interesting, it is a document What you should also know well is precisely when you try to change things in those businesses it is like a scale like this with points and the system is quite simple the more serious the infraction is the more penalty points are awarded to the Factories at fault and what calls us The attention is that when one of your suppliers does not declare a subcontractor it is worth two points in other words a really minor minor penalty I don't know where you got this from either uh because this is a scale to use for our own management I don't know who gave it to you in In any case, it is not from our department, that is not really the problem, but it does come from Inditex, okay, but here you are talking about something very specific about the subcontracting that we are in.

They have not told me anything, no, no, it is not listening to what we have to do. . I want to emphasize one thing: our policy is zero tolerance, regardless of what the violation of our code of conduct is, but when you say it's zero tolerance, frankly, it's hard to believe because, from our point of view. From the point of view you never sent them a message that says zero tolerance that is a personal opinion but look this is a scale that comes from your services it is not a personal opinion it is a question of numbers it is clear child labor 76 points unauthorized subcontractor two points is almost an incentive to hire subcontractors who will be D and who make children work.

If you are making an inaccurate comparison, an undeclared subcontractor may have a factory where the working conditions are good or adequate or maybe not, we make sure that the supplier tells us that they are subcontracting and when we identify who these subcontractors are we visit them to verify the working conditions of your employees we focus on problem solving this is our main motivation risk prevention look where I disagree with you is when you say that you go out of your way to encourage talking about your subcontractors and, frankly, threaten to a penalty of only two points is not doing everything possible to ensure that you are informed about your work with subcontractors.

Well, you don't agree with me, it's a shame. I think there are risks related to sourcing, but it is also necessary to see exactly what the working conditions are like at subcontractors, since I have said that our policy is zero tolerance, but zero risk itself does not exist. Okay, okay, okay, so, long story short, there are no problems in the world of Inditex. The New Delhi incident in 2009 is just a bad memory the crisis The communication expert is in front of the camera and everything is under control that is the official version anyway but we have a feeling we have ruffled some feathers one day you will tell me how do you have this information no, never yes, I suppose perhaps it is the reason why 9 days later we receive one last confidential document this time it is no mystery it is from the group's lawyers within a letter that actively encourages us to cover how inditex has progressed in new delhi there is also a corrected graph showing Of the 17 current suppliers with highest ratings, none of them already had D and there is also an additional video filmed on four of their highest rated suppliers, so today we are At Minu Creations, we will see this factory today how it is going to work.

Work as it was before and what changes have been made since the last few years in this factory. The videos show four sparkling, spotlessly clean factories with state-of-the-art fire alarm systems, including a small hammer to break glass. There are full closets. of medicines in the infirmary, in short, up to Norm, clean and airy, little information, however, about the subcontractors used by the official suppliers, all those thousands of little blue dots, if you remember, as a last check as part of our investigation , is south of New Delhi. where we decided to visit one of them again posing as buyers from France, this is one of the declared subcontractors therefore verified by index and yet to our own faces the manager admits that he violates the rules established by the company Spanish, what time do you start? in the morning at what time 9:00 a.m. and you finish at 9:00 p.m.

Okay, how many hours a week can you work in the factory? We work every day, every day, only on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. m. Sunday free 4:00 p.m. There are 20, 7 days a week, production continues. You have this other question about overtime pay. Actually, yes, overtime is not double. We are not working alone overtime at the accredited manufacturer of this index. Staff work much longer than officially allowed. hours without a day off once a week without bonuses for overtime is one of the advantages of being a subcontractor says that the boss is easier to use the contract those requirements are in the contractor but not in the subcontract there are more restrictions for them than for In fact, when the people from Inditex come, we don't tell them that we work overtime and anyway they never bother to check it, of course, they are fully aware of it, they know it.

Conclusion Dear Mr. Inditex, in response to your correspondence, the Cash team would like to present you with this short video that will allow you to understand that perhaps it is still possible to improve your controls so that one day you can reach your zero risk goal at the end of our six-year Odyssey. months in the textile world. The moral of our research. is that possibly the best way to do low cost is to never fully examine to see what's under the label, that way we can continue to lower production costs and be able to dress at highly competitive prices while staring at the contents of each of our cups.

In the morning, our own responsibility seems purely relative. Oh, and P.S., after all, we're all a little scared when we see those faces.little workers who make our clothes, right?