Governor disputes claim of abuse
By Christopher Newton/AP
Factory workers in American Samoa who made clothes for J.C. Penney Co. and other retailers were beaten, poorly fed and cheated out of wages, according to a Labor Department report.
The report, dated Dec. 14, said the 300 workers at the plant were fed meager rations of rice, watery broth and cabbage and resembled “walking skeletons.” Some were systematically starved when they complained.
The plant has been the subject of numerous investigations and was closed in January.
The Labor Department report was made public by the National Labor Committee — an anti-sweatshop activist group working to expose poor conditions at overseas factories and pressure retailers to improve conditions at plants. Labor officials declined to comment on the report last week.
J.C. Penney stopped selling the factory’s clothes when it learned of the problems in December. It also canceled contracts with supplier M. Hidary & Co., which ordered goods from the factory, according to a letter sent from J.C. Penney vice president Peter McGrath to Charles Kernaghan, spokesman for the National Labor Committee.
The letter, dated Feb. 1, also said Hidary had never informed J.C. Penney of its plans to use the Samoan factory to make clothes. McGrath wrote that Hidary has agreed to pay the workers back wages.
Kernaghan said the Labor Department report shows that large retailers are failing to police factories they contract to produce goods.
“What happened to the screening process? What happened to the monitoring program? It didn’t happen here,” Kernaghan said. “These violations throw into doubt how serious J.C. Penney is about stopping these kinds of abuses. Without a Department of Labor investigation, this would have continued.”
The factory, owned by Korean manufacturer Daewoosa, employed mainly Vietnamese women flown to the U.S. Pacific territory and paid below the Samoan minimum wage of $2.60 an hour, the report said. Most federal labor standards are supposed to apply in U.S. territories. The women lived 36 to a room, and were slapped or kicked if they were late for work. They were also watched while they bathed, the Dec. 14 report said. One federal investigator likened the factory compound to a prison.
The employees have sued Daewoosa, alleging their wages were withheld and they were charged up to $200 — almost half their salary — for accommodation that had been promised for free. The status of that lawsuit was uncertain.
Daewoosa lawyers would not comment while the case was before the courts.
But American Samoa Gov. Tauese Sunia blasted a human rights group’s claims. Sunia called the National Labor Committee’s claims “bull” at a Feb. 7 news conference. He said he made three surprise visits and one scheduled stop at the Daewoosa factory before it was closed, and found the workers were being fed properly and were not being beaten. Sunia also said the workers each had their own beds, contrary to the Labor Department’s report of crowded living conditions.
The National Labor Committee has accused territorial officials and police of being indifferent to the plight of the workers, saying politically connected residents have been employed as lawyers or other officials for Daewoosa.
The governor’s brother, Aitofele Sunia, is an attorney for the firm. |
