Hi all,
I am Michael from France. & doing busines with India, China & Bangladesh.
I came to know the recent news about KPR Mill, C&A, H&M. I have made an extensive research on this matter & consulted with sources from third party auditor firms, NGOs & many persons familiar with the factory & the NGOs. The out come is as below.
1) In India (Gurgaon) a factory was having same problem by an NGO (similar to this) & M&S was the buyer. M&S cancelled the order & placed in Turkey. Then M&S audited the factory & found everything is perfect & the NGO news is totally wrong. ! This issue pushed the supplier to depression & think about quitting the Garment Industry & go to some other industry. So the NGOs wrong news is damaging the lives of those workers employed!! Many are loosing the jobs because of this. (Source : news in Indian Express Newspaper - Financial edition. Link: Click here to view source)
2) The same source revealed that 150 NGOs were thrown out of Bangladesh soil due to their wrong activities. As I have visited Many fareast /Indian Factories. In China NGO activities are NOT allowed. But the Indian Factories allowing the NGOs in good faith & the wrong attitude of the NGOs creating problems to the Factories & workers.
3) These NGOs are funded by many foreign companies & these NGOs need to show the donators that they are functioning & they are creating drama that they work for the welfare of the workers (Ofcourse they are the real reasons for many unemployment of them & keep them starving !!) All their stunts are to attract the donators. The Journals are supporting to create news to increase their sales. Its like shown in the James Bond movie " Tomorrow Never dies". This is NOT ethical. I was shocked to see porno type of images in the journal De Volskrant in the front page under heading Movies. I can understand the Journal will do anything to increase their sales.
4) I have been speaking to many of the third party auditors who audited KPR factory many times for many buyers. Their response was just simple. "We have audited the KPR Facility many times. KPR meets all the local government laws, customer code of conduct / ethical requirements. KPR hostel is built only because of the parents & workers request. Its a mandatory requirement by the parents & workers to protect the workers.. The journal team first asked KPR permission for their visit & after KPR granted the same there is NO response from the Journals. KPR voluntarily reminded the journal team to visit them. Its because of the transparancy of the KPR model. KPR is not in a remote village. Its just 7 kilometres near by the Airport. Many Government officials, foreign delegates / ministers & media have visited the facility many times. They had spoken with many workers & found happy & they vouch for KPR facility for its workers care"
5) In this matter C&A has done a full audit thru their auditing firm SOCAM & passed & then only approved for production. At the time of audit SOCAM has all document evidence that Quantum is the fully owned subsidary of KPR. Also SOCAM has visited the same factory previously in the name of KPR. So it is evident that C&A know that this is KPR factory & done proper audit & passed. But when Journals published the wrong news by the NGO, C&A didn't believe his own audit. Also H&M. They also completely audited the factory & personally interviewed many workers & then only passed it. Now after the wrong news H&M is also putting pressure on the factory.
6) I would like to recall the issue created by the same NGO person Esther in a bangalore factory. He has totally give a wrong news & tried to esclate labour problem in that factory. When the court ordered him to present, he didn't do so. So he was issued an International arrest warrant. This kind of activities shows that the intention of this NGO is to esclate wrong news & create mass. May be he can benifited by getting more donation. But this will spoil the life of workers.
7) When I agree everybody should follow the ethical / social responsibilities, we shouldnot allow such practice to demotivate the good factories & create bad image. Finally the good factory will stop & the workers will be left without any job!! Is this the NGOs wanting?
8) Creating a bad image is very easy. Building a trust & good image is very challenging. We people only can support good factories by NOT accepting such wrong news.
9) I have seen many news websites / blogs using some fake photos (Which are NOT even taken at KPR factory / NOT KPR workers ) to create wrong image on KPR.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Garment exporters blast NGOs for reports abroad - Source: Indian Express Finance - 15 Sep 2010
Wednesday September 15, 03:42 AM Source: Indian Express Finance By Jyotsna Bhatnagar
Garment exporters blast NGOs for reports abroad
Rocked by a nearly 23% decline in exports this July, the apparel sector has requested Centre's help to counter what it calls propaganda and adverse publicity by some non-government organisations (NGOs).
Garment Exporters' Association, which represents the over $10-million garment exporting industry, has sought textile minister Dayanidhi Maran's intervention on "this pressing problem."
The stand has drawn support from the larger industry body, the Apparel Export Promotion Council. Chairman Premal Udani told FE: "We strongly urge individual exporters who are facing such victimisation by NGOs to approach us so that we can deal with the situation. Currently, (the companies) are either contemplating closure or succumbing to their demands, both of which are dangerous precedents for the industry as a whole."
There are significant implications for the sector taking a possible tailspin, as the garment sector is a large employment generator. The textile sector is the second-largest employment generator for the Indian economy, after agriculture.
Matters came to a head with reports of "sweatshop practices" by Indian garment manufacturers mounted by some NGOs in the UK and other places in August, which caused export orders from India to plummet all of a sudden.
Prominent among those who cancelled orders was retail leader Marks & Spencer (M&S) of the UK.
The spark was lit from an ongoing labour dispute at a Gurgaon-based garment exporting unit named Viva Global. A news item about possible violations of labour rights at the company gained prominence in the international media, particularly in the UK, giving it a hue of exploitative malpractices of forced labour.
Subsequently, the local police and the district labour commissioner absolved the company of the charges. Even M&S has officially cleared Viva of any labour malpractices. In an emailed reply to FE, a spokesperson for the UK-based company stated: "M&S has conducted investigations into claims being made against Viva Global and can find no evidence to substantiate any of them." The orders have, however, been cancelled and placed with a Turkish company, instead.
Rakesh Vaid, chairman, Garment Exporters Association told FE: "The Viva case is a classic example of how NGOs are clearly out to foment dissent among workers. The modus operandi is to choose soft targets, plant troublemakers among the labour force and then whip up an agitation." Said Vipin Vohra, owner of Viva Global: "I am so sick of this negative campaign; I am planning to exit the garment exports business altogether."
Vaid claimed these troubles could snowball into an industry-wide problem. According to him, faced with a similar situation, neighbouring Bangladesh has banned over 150 NGOs from operating on its soil largely because they were creating unrest in its garment export sector. "Today, Bangladesh is overtaking us in the sector," he said.
He was echoed by Sudhir Dhingra, chairman of Orient Crafts, one of India's leading garment exporters with exports of over Rs 1,500 crore.
"Exposing malpractices in the trade is a laudable job being done by NGOs but projecting the entire industry in an adverse light is detrimental to the cause of the workers as well as the industry. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are working with some other agenda." Udani of AEPC said the apex body will launch a counter-campaign to educate buyers as well as garment exporters to handle such accusations. "We will soon start broadcasting programmes extolling all the good work garment exporters are doing to improve the working conditions of those employed in this sector. We are trying to tell international buyers to talk to us directly and not pay heed to adverse propaganda".
A recently drafted code of conduct for the garment exporting industry prepared by AEPC in consultation with the International Labour Organisation will be pushed aggressively for adoption by all garment exporting units. He said they will also approach NGOs for suggestions to eliminate further malpractices which they think exist.
Garment exporters blast NGOs for reports abroad
Rocked by a nearly 23% decline in exports this July, the apparel sector has requested Centre's help to counter what it calls propaganda and adverse publicity by some non-government organisations (NGOs).
Garment Exporters' Association, which represents the over $10-million garment exporting industry, has sought textile minister Dayanidhi Maran's intervention on "this pressing problem."
The stand has drawn support from the larger industry body, the Apparel Export Promotion Council. Chairman Premal Udani told FE: "We strongly urge individual exporters who are facing such victimisation by NGOs to approach us so that we can deal with the situation. Currently, (the companies) are either contemplating closure or succumbing to their demands, both of which are dangerous precedents for the industry as a whole."
There are significant implications for the sector taking a possible tailspin, as the garment sector is a large employment generator. The textile sector is the second-largest employment generator for the Indian economy, after agriculture.
Matters came to a head with reports of "sweatshop practices" by Indian garment manufacturers mounted by some NGOs in the UK and other places in August, which caused export orders from India to plummet all of a sudden.
Prominent among those who cancelled orders was retail leader Marks & Spencer (M&S) of the UK.
The spark was lit from an ongoing labour dispute at a Gurgaon-based garment exporting unit named Viva Global. A news item about possible violations of labour rights at the company gained prominence in the international media, particularly in the UK, giving it a hue of exploitative malpractices of forced labour.
Subsequently, the local police and the district labour commissioner absolved the company of the charges. Even M&S has officially cleared Viva of any labour malpractices. In an emailed reply to FE, a spokesperson for the UK-based company stated: "M&S has conducted investigations into claims being made against Viva Global and can find no evidence to substantiate any of them." The orders have, however, been cancelled and placed with a Turkish company, instead.
Rakesh Vaid, chairman, Garment Exporters Association told FE: "The Viva case is a classic example of how NGOs are clearly out to foment dissent among workers. The modus operandi is to choose soft targets, plant troublemakers among the labour force and then whip up an agitation." Said Vipin Vohra, owner of Viva Global: "I am so sick of this negative campaign; I am planning to exit the garment exports business altogether."
Vaid claimed these troubles could snowball into an industry-wide problem. According to him, faced with a similar situation, neighbouring Bangladesh has banned over 150 NGOs from operating on its soil largely because they were creating unrest in its garment export sector. "Today, Bangladesh is overtaking us in the sector," he said.
He was echoed by Sudhir Dhingra, chairman of Orient Crafts, one of India's leading garment exporters with exports of over Rs 1,500 crore.
"Exposing malpractices in the trade is a laudable job being done by NGOs but projecting the entire industry in an adverse light is detrimental to the cause of the workers as well as the industry. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are working with some other agenda." Udani of AEPC said the apex body will launch a counter-campaign to educate buyers as well as garment exporters to handle such accusations. "We will soon start broadcasting programmes extolling all the good work garment exporters are doing to improve the working conditions of those employed in this sector. We are trying to tell international buyers to talk to us directly and not pay heed to adverse propaganda".
A recently drafted code of conduct for the garment exporting industry prepared by AEPC in consultation with the International Labour Organisation will be pushed aggressively for adoption by all garment exporting units. He said they will also approach NGOs for suggestions to eliminate further malpractices which they think exist.
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