A recent audit has exposed terrible working conditions at a Chinese manufacturer that makes clothes for Ivanka Trump’s personal fashion line.
Employees of the unnamed factory, which manufactures clothing for the G-III Apparel Group, reportedly earn $62 by working nearly 60 hours per week, according to a report by Fair Labor Association on Monday.
The New York-based firm has an exclusive license to produce Ivanka Trump-branded goods, Shanghaiist reports. The findings were based on an independent audit of the Chinese factory last October, a month before Ivanka’s father became the President of the United States. After conducting a two-day tour of the factory, auditors found that 80 workers were victims of about two dozen violations of international labor standards.
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It was discovered that factory worked were forced to work 42 to 82 hours of overtime per month to be able to meet manufacturing targets. The figure by far exceeds the allowable limit of overtime hours per month in China, which is 36 hours. The hard-working employees made between 1,879 ($272) to 2,088 yuan ($303) per month, which is considered way below the minimum wage in China.
The workers, who are granted only five days of leave per year, also lack legally-mandated worker’s benefits. The report noted that less than a third of them were given “social insurance” benefits, which includes a pension and health insurance. Addressing such concerns are also made difficult for the workers since they did not even have a union to represent them, with only a management appointee serving as their representative.
Other concerns cited by the investigators in the report include some serious safety issues at the factory. Workers were not only left untrained in workplace safety, special equipment that helps prevent or reduce injuries were not supplied.
Without being specific, G-III Apparel Group stated that the company has already corrected some of the infractions, while the others are being improved.
