Sportswear manufacturers Nike and Adidas-Saloman have run into trouble with a charitable group.

Both companies’ Indonesia operations were mentioned in a recent report by the Australia- based Oxfam Community Aid Abroad. The report, We are not machines, said: “Although some improvements have been made in working conditions in sports shoe factories producing for Nike and Adidas… the measures taken fall short of ensuring that workers are able to live with dignity.”

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Areas where supplier companies are alleged to have fallen short are in wages, freedom of association and working conditions.

The report, conducted between July last year and January this year, is based on the accounts of 35 workers from four factories producing for both companies in West Java. The main problem appears to be low wages. The report claimed that full-time wages are as low as $2 a day, “leading to workers living in extreme poverty”. The report also mentioned that “workers have reason to fear that active union involvement could lead them to be dismissed”.

Vada Manager, director of global issues for Nike, said: “We take any concerns raised about factories where Nike products are produced very seriously. However, interviewing 35 workers out of 110,000 in a country is neither statistically significant nor representative.”

A spokesperson for Adidas agreed, saying: “The report acknowledges that improvements have been made in the past two years in our suppliers’ factories, but does not present a completely balanced picture.”

Nike has sought to improve conditions in its supplying factories, usually owned by third parties. To monitor conditions, the company uses the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities (GA), a partnership of foundations, global companies, and international institutions, which places emphasis on reaching young adult workers involved in global production and service supply chains worldwide.

GA has interviewed 4000 workers in nine factories across Indonesia, covering a range of issues from health to management/worker relations. Nike reports quarterly to the GA and, according to Mr Manager: “addresses all issues of non-compliance found through the research”.

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Nike and Adidas also emphasised that they work closely with the Fair Labor Association, and both conduct internal audits of factories to address problems on a daily basis.

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