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adidas' parking space at the closed Spotec factory
Photo: Kelly Dent/OxfamAus
Correspondence between sports brands and Oxfam Australia about Offside! report recommendations
On 23 January 2008, Oxfam Australia's Executive Director Andrew Hewett wrote to the executive directors of 10 sports brands. He asked them to outline their progress on the major recommendations in the Offside! report (published in May 2006) and how they were solving the outstanding issues of workers’ labour rights in their supply chains. Find out what the sports brands said.
Correspondence between adidas and Oxfam Australia about the adidas Indonesian supplier factories Dong Joe, Spotec and Tong Yang
March 2008: Despite adidas' assurances that ex-Spotec workers would be prioritised into the new Ching Luh adidas supplier, most of the ex-Spotec workers short-listed for interviews at Ching Luh in November missed out because they were not informed of their job interview times. Oxfam Australia wrote to adidas urging that the company initiate fair and transparent processes to ensure the ex-Spotec workers are hired into Ching Luh. Read the letter (PDF, 81KB).
December 2007: adidas wrote to Oxfam Australia stating that they are committed to ensuring transparency in the hiring process at CLI (Ching Luh, adidas' new supplier factory). adidas also committed to closely monitoring the prioritisation of the ex-Spotec workers into the new adidas supplier. Read the letter.
September 2007: Ten months after losing their jobs, workers from Dong Joe and Spotec were still without their full back pay and wages. Oxfam Australia wrote a letter (102KB) to adidas asking the company to step up its efforts to resolve outstanding issues in Spotec, Dong Joe, Tong Yang and issues in Panarub.
June 2007: adidas wrote to Oxfam Australia (PDF, 92KB) as a response to letters from concerned members of the public and to Oxfam Australia's own concerns regarding the three factories and the nearly 20,000 workers left without their full entitlements (back pay and wages).
February 2007: Three unions at Spotec wrote a joint letter to adidas (PDF, 19KB) .
January 2007: adidas posted a question and answer document on its website.
November 2006: Both the Pt Spotec and Pt Dong Joe adidas supplier factories in Indonesia closed leaving a total of 10,500 workers without jobs. A third factory, Pt Tong Yang, employing more than 9,000 workers, is also set to close.
Read copies of Oxfam Australia's correspondence with adidas.
Reports on discussions between sports brands and human rights organisations
February 2007– dialogue, which began in 2006, continues with adidas regarding the Offside! report and labour rights in the Panarub factory in Indonesia which produces adidas football boots
Following the 23 May 2006 release of Oxfam International’s Offside! report, adidas put a response to the report on its website on 26 May 2006. Oxfam International replied on 14 June 2006 and adidas responded again on 28 June 2006. Oxfam released a press release on 7 July 2006 titled “Oxfam red cards adidas over human rights”. This story was covered in the Guardian newspaper. In August 2006, adidas made available copies of its correspondence with the management of the Panarub factory.
March 2005 - dialogue with Nike regarding MSP Sportswear (Thailand)
When three union members were dismissed for union activity in this factory, Oxfam Australia was part of an alliance of workers and human rights groups that successfully persuaded Nike and MSP Sportswear to give them their jobs back.
- Read copies of correspondence between Oxfam Australia and Nike regarding this issue
- Read the latest news on the MSP Sportswear case
August 2004 - dialogue between sportswear brands and Oxfams, Global Unions and the Clean Clothes Campaign
From March-August 2004 Oxfams participated in the Play Fair At The Olympics campaign demanding that sportswear brands respect workers' rights. In August 2004 the campaign released a document titled "The story so far." describing discussions with sports brands. There is also a more detailed table with information on the responses of targeted brands (Puma, Asics, Mizuno, Umbro, Lotto, Kappa and Fila). Dialogue with these companies ontinues and we will publish regular progress reports.
1999-2002 - dialogue with Nike
From 1999-2002, Nike and Oxfam Australia held a number of discussions. On request we can email a full copy of the NikeWatch web pages up to October 2003, including this dialogue. Please note that the zip file is quite large at 1.2MB.