The Spanish company behind high-street fashion stores Zara is under investigation over the use of "slave labour" at factories in Brazil.
Workers discovered to be producing clothes for the Zara label in sweatshop conditions in Sao Paulo are to receive compensation, Inditex, the parent company of the retail chain, confirmed.
Authorities said they rescued a team of workers – 14 Bolivians and one Peruvian – from an unlicensed factory that sewed garments carrying the Zara label.
The 15 immigrant workers, one of whom was reported to be just 14 years old, were said to be living in dangerous and unhygienic conditions on the factory floor, forced to work 12-hour shifts for between $156 (£95) and $290 (£176) a month. The minimum wage in Brazil is $344.
Inditex, which is based in A Coruña in Spain's northwestern región of Galicia, denies responsibility and claims the workers were "employed illegally by a subcontractor without Inditex's knowledge" in a statement released Thursday.
It said it could not be held responsible for unauthorised outsourcing but had "zero tolerance for infringements of this kind."
The Brazilian government has listed 52 charges against Inditex after an investigation launched in May into working conditions at factories in the north of Sao Paulo.
Renato Bignami, who led the investigation by Brazil's Ministry of Labour and Employment, said they had uncovered "classic cases of immigrant sweat shops."
In such cases workers often face "threats, coercion, physical violence … to increase productivity," he said, and some were forced to work months to pay off the traffickers who smuggled them into the country.
The Brazilian government said it would pursue Zara because it was ultimately responsible for the practices of AHA, the company responsible for 90 per cent of Zara's Brazilian production.
"AHA is a logistical extension of its main client, Zara Brasil," said the prosecutor Giuliana Cassiano Orlandi. "The company is responsible for its employees. Its raison d'etre is making clothes and it follows that it must know who is producing its garments."
But Inditex said the case constituted "a grave infringement to the Inditex code of conduct" which "aims to safeguard workers’ rights to the fullest extent" and had immediately demanded that it be rectified.
The company confirmed that compensation would be paid to the workers and that Inditex would work with the Brazilian Ministry of Labour and Employment, "to strengthen oversight of its production system, both at this supplier and at the other companies with which it works in Brazil, for the purpose of preventing similar cases in the future," it said.
Inditex, which also owns the chains Massimo Dutti and Berksha, is a family business founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega. The 75-year old is the richest man in Spain and ranked seventh in Forbes' billionaires list, with an estimated fortune of $31bn (£19bn).
According to Forbes magazine, half of production remains in Spain, with 26 per cent in Europe and the remainder spread around the world.
Zara popular for its mid-range priced fashion, has 1,540 stores worldwide including 64 in the UK.
VOCABULARY
high-street fashion: affordable for everyone, for ordinary people
parent company: empresa matriz, sede central
retail chain : cadena commercial
sew: coser
garments: prendas (article of clothing)
wage: pay per hour (sueldo, paga)
outsourcing: subcontratar (obtain goods externally)
launched: poner en marcha, iniciar (start off, set in motion)
sweatshops: talleres de confección, talleres ilegales (a workshop where employees work long hours under bad conditions for low wages)
coercion: coacción, extorsión (forcing by intimidation)
smuggle: pasar de contraband (import illegaly)
safeguard: salvaguardar (protect)
strengthen: reforzar, fortalecer (make stronger)
oversight: vigilancia (supervision)
supplier: proveedor, suministrador ( provider)
remainder: restante (what is left)
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