adidas Group rejects allegations published in Südwind report about working conditions in Indonesia

Herzogenaurach, 6 November 2012 - On November 6th Südwind published a report called “Violations of Working Rights in Indonesia. What can investors do?”. The report focuses on labour rights violations in footwear and apparel factories in Indonesia. More specifically, it raises serious allegations against several adidas Group’s suppliers, namely Nikomas Gemilang (a footwear supplier), PT Framas Plastics (a footwear components supplier) and PT Kaho Indah Garment (an apparel supplier).
 
We take such allegations very seriously and we completely reject what has been stated in the Südwind report. As a matter of fact, the majority of the claims are either inaccurate, or lack substance, which makes them superficial and vague. At the adidas Group we regularly monitor our suppliers, and the results of recent factory visits, audits and worker interviews do not support the allegations which have been made by Südwind. Moreover, the report gives a completely misleading picture about the current working conditions in our supplier factories in Indonesia.
 
Südwind states that the findings are based on information which has been recently gathered by the local NGO TURC/LIPS. The report makes reference to interviews conducted with 50 workers, including union members, selected from a workforce of 85,000 people employed by these three supplier factories.
 
Given the serious nature of the allegations made in the report, we formally require Südwind to fully disclose all source material that was used for the development of the report. Also, we request TURC/LIPS to meet with our compliance staff in Indonesia to provide details of their findings, which would allow us to investigate the matter further.
 
For many years the adidas Group has been operating a mature programme to ensure compliance with sound labour practices in our supply chain. We have a committed team of experts in Indonesia who closely work with our suppliers and engage with local groups like unions and other stakeholders. We operate confidential hotlines to gather concerns from workers about any issue in the work place and we immediately take action whenever concerns are raised.
 
We are committed to further investigate the allegations made in the report, provided that Südwind and their local partner TURC/LIPS fully disclose their sources of information.