Fabula Confecçao e Comercio de Roupas, the Brazilian manufacturer of renowned fashion brands Animale and A. Brand, has been reportedly named in the country’s ‘dirty list’ of companies that practice slave labour.
While announcing this on 3 April 2019, the Government said that the company has been outsourcing clothes of the aforementioned brands to 3 workshops in São Paulo where the workers have been found to put excessive working hours with hardly any pay.
Though all the 3 workshops were not owned by Fabula, the labour inspectors considered the latter as the owner because the workshop took orders only from Fabula and serviced only its brands.
While explaining further, Mauricio Krepsky, Head, Division of Inspection for the Eradication of Slave Labor, reported that since Fabula was setting the rules, they are the ones who are accountable.
Notably, the companies listed in Brazil’s ‘dirty list’ are prohibited from accessing credit from state banks or any other public financial support.
Grupo Soma, which owns both the brands, said that this was an isolated incident and that in last 27 years, the brands were never in any case where a direct supplier was involved in any work similar to slavery.
