The Japan-based fast-fashion retailer, Uniqlo is facing a lot of criticism from its factory workers. More than 2,000 of the brand’s ex-employees are campaigning for the non-payment of their dues which is worth US $ 5.5 millions, according to the protesters.
Notably, these workers were forced to leave when the company decided to shutter the factory back in 2015, citing delayed delivery and quality issues as the main reasons behind taking such a big step.
Many of these workers are now out in numbers campaigning outside the brand’s outlets in a bid to make the company realise the work put in by them in making the fashion label what it is at present.
Warni Lena Napitupulu, a former Indonesian worker at Uniqlo recalled that it was when the Japanese company started providing orders at the factory, owned by Jaba Garmindo, six years back that her job took a turn for the worse.
“The normal working hours were from 7 am to 4 pm, but we often had to work overtime, sometimes until 10 pm. If we worked overtime, we could only get 8,000 rupiah [US $ 0.50] in extra payment regardless of the number of additional hours we had worked,” Warni said.
Furthermore, Warni claimed that back in 2013, when the minimum wages were 2.2 million rupiah, Uniqlo offered only 1.8 million rupiah. The company did increase the minimum wages up to 2.7 million rupiah in 2015, before the closure of the factory but during that time even that hike was not enough for Warni to meet her daily expenses.
The workers have the backing of a non-profit organisation; Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) which has set up a meeting with the fashion retailer’s representatives scheduled for next month.
Johnson Yeung Ching-yin, campaigner, CCC’s East Asia elucidated that the company must take responsibility for not following United Nation’s guiding principles that assure a business to respect the human rights of their workers in their supply chains.
