Zara accused in Brazil sweatshop inquiry

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/18/zara-brazil-sweatshop-accusation
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Retail fashion chain Zara is under investigation by Brazil's ministry of labour after a contractor in São Paulo was found to be using employees in sweatshop conditions to make garments for the Spanish company.

The Brazilian government listed 52 charges against Inditex, Zara's parent company, after it "rescued" 15 workers from a factory sub-contracted by AHA, the company responsible for 90% of Zara's Brazilian production. Fourteen of the workers were Bolivians and one was from Peru. One was 14.

Inditex said in a statement that it could not be held responsible for "unauthorised outsourcing" but would compensate the workers because AHA had violated Inditex's code of conduct. Zara has 1,540 stores worldwide, including 64 in the UK.

The response has not satisfied the Brazilian authorities. "AHA is a logistical extension of its main client, Zara Brasil," said the prosecutor, Giuliana Cassiano Orlandi. "The company is responsible for its employees. Its raison d'être is making clothes and it follows that it must know who is producing its garments."