Main bicycle producer Specialised reportedly owes Salvadoran employees $659,000 in unpaid wages.
A 2024 investigation by the Employee Rights Consortium has discovered that 831 employees who misplaced their jobs after an APS garment manufacturing unit in El Salvador closed in August 2022 had been denied their wages and severance advantages, which is in opposition to Salvadoran legislation.
In actual fact, in response to the Employee Rights Consortium, Salvadoran legislation required that the employees be compensated for 28 days of unpaid wages and 50% of their severance pay by December 13, 2022, with the contingent that APS would safe a purchaser for the manufacturing unit.
APS didn’t safe a purchaser in time, and because of this, the manufacturing unit’s unionized employees filed a lawsuit in opposition to the manufacturing unit for his or her full unpaid wages and severance pay.
One of many firms the employees produced clothes for was Specialised. The opposite three firms are Gildan Activewear, Kellwood Firm, and Hanes manufacturers.
Gildan Activewear and Kellwood Firm lately returned to talks with the employees and agreed to pay them two-thirds of the full wages and severance owed to them, a fee of 1.34 million {dollars}, in response to the investigation.
In response to the Clear Garments Marketing campaign (CCC), neither Hanes nor Specialised have assumed any duty in paying the employees their remaining owed third of the wages and severance pay.
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Salvadoran unions proceed to press Hanes and Specialised to contribute to the ultimate third of wages and severance pay owed to the employees. Inexperienced America, a member of the CCC, has additionally jumped on the push, encouraging American shoppers to stress Specialised with a petition and electronic mail marketing campaign, which has already acquired 10,000 signatures and the assist of 30 organizations.
Nonetheless, the CCC claims that Specialised has been “totally unresponsive to all efforts comprised of labor rights group to debate the case with them,” and has even blocked the e-mail domains of a number of CCC organizations which have tried to contact the corporate on behalf of the Salvadoran employees.
The Employees Rights Consortium investigation corroborates this unresponsiveness, stating: “With respect to Specialised, for the reason that APS manufacturing unit closed, each the WRC and APS employees’ representatives have written to its executives on a number of events in search of the corporate’s help in addressing the nonpayment of legally due compensation to the staff. Specialised has by no means responded to those communications.”
In speaking to Biking Weekly, Specialised denies these claims, stating it has been in ‘fixed communication.’
“Specialised takes its dedication to accountable manufacturing very severely. Now we have been in fixed communication with our provider that utilized this El Salvador manufacturing unit previously and have clearly communicated our expectation that the employees’ claims be dealt with and resolved appropriately,” Specialised spokeswoman Kelly Henningsen instructed Biking Weekly. “Whereas we aren’t aware of the small print of the continuing authorized course of involving the employees and the manufacturing unit, we now have been monitoring and can proceed to watch the matter in shut cooperation with our provider and are wanting ahead to a decision by way of the native course of and in accordance with our expectation.”
That is an ongoing story. Within the meantime, Specialised has created a webpage devoted to their dedication to accountable manufacturing, which may be seen right here.
