SAO POULO, Brazil - 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."
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