The situation for workers in the country's textile sector is a cause for serious concern, according to labour rights groups. Despite government claims that neo-liberal reforms have increased employment and the export of textile products in recent years, Peruvian textile workers are some of the country's lowest-paid and face some of the worst working conditions of any textile labour force worldwide.
Peruvian textile workers say they are routinely bullied and "brutally harrassed" by their employers and that legal systems favouring the bosses have led to their working day reaching more than 12 hours in some cases. Powerful groups in the sector, such as the Flores family who own Topy Top, have been accused of systematically undermining workers' rights.
Poor conditions, described in graphic detail in the 2008 interview below, led to strike action in 2009 against Law 2242 which exempts textile exporters from offering long-term contracts to staff, allowing them to end anyone's employment within two months without having to state a reason.
Accusations that the law was damaging the right to free association and leading to super-exploitation is backed up by a 2008 study from the Fair Labor Association which found that:
- Workers were afraid to join a union for fear of retaliation
- The company had no health and safety policy and did not provide adequate safety equipment or clothing
- The company was unable to demonstrate that it had any protections against the use of child labour
- Workers were found to regularly work over 60 hours a week and in in severe cases up to 77 hours.
- The company had no health and safety policy and did not provide adequate safety equipment or clothing
- The company was unable to demonstrate that it had any protections against the use of child labour
- Workers were found to regularly work over 60 hours a week and in in severe cases up to 77 hours.
Two years on from the group's damning report, which recommended heavy legal intervention and sparked further calls for the repeal of Law 2242, campaigners say little has changed and Topy Top's actions are just the tip of the iceberg.
Periodico Humanidad wrote:
Here is a possible pamphlet text:
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TO THE PUBLIC AND CONSUMERS OF ZARA
* Exploitation in Topy, a top supplier for ZARA *
The reality of the workers in the textile sector is currently dramatic and troubling. Despite the siren calls and the triumphalism of the last governments, with respect to the increase in productive employment and textile products in recent years, textile workers are the worst paid of the Economically Active Population and the most affected by the brutal onslaught of local entrepeneurs (with work shifts exceeding 12 hours in some cases and starvation wages). Powerful groups in the industry - such as the Flores Conislia family - violate and undermine the dignity and fundamental rights of Topy Top workers. A fundamental right in any "modern democracy", such as the right to unionize, is an affront to the owners of Topy Top. These people are systematically harrassing and arbitrarily firing all unionized workers - like on last May Day. The current corrupt government is passive and inert (perhaps complicit?) regarding this. Using blatant anti-union tactics, 35 workers were thrown into the street last May, without any reasons to justify this; they have been replaced.
Let us not allow these crimes and illegal actions committed by the Flores Conislia group and others who are favoured by an outdated labour system (which comes from the Morales Bermúdez dictatorship), which should be ammended without further delay.
We urge consumers to express their solidarity with the workers of Topy Top and textile workers in general.
Consumer: think each time that you buy something in ZARA, it was produced at the expense of the sacrifice and shameless exploitation of hundreds of workers, who are not given basic social benefits such as profit sharing bonuses, CTS (severance pay) and whose right to unionize is violated. Many of these workers are young people who deserve to be treated with dignity, without systematic harrassment and criminal anti-labour tactics characteristic of totalitarian regimes.
www.libcom.org
www.iwa-ait.org
A fundamental right in all 'modern democracies' is to organise, it's a shame the owners of Topy Top don't agree with this. These gentlemen constantly harass labour organisers and on May 1st arbitrarily dismissed all unionised workers at the factory, secure that the passivity and possible complicity of a corrupt government would allow them to get away with it.
But their anti-union drive, in which 35 union workers were thrown out on the streets and replaced without any reasons given, is a tactical blunder.
Do not permit these illegal acts from the likes of the Flores family, who are favored by outdated working arrangements (brought in by the 1920s dictator Morales Bermúdez) - they must be amended without further delay.
We are asking consumers to show solidarity with the workers of Topy Top and with our fight in the textile industry in general.
Every time you buy an item from Zara it is produced at a cost of sacrifice and the brazen super-exploitation of hundreds of workers, where we do not receive even the most basic minimum earnings and are denied the right to unionise. Many of these workers are young and should be treated with dignity, not with systematic harassment and criminal tactics from a totalitarian regime.
Here is a possible pamphlet text:
--
TO THE PUBLIC AND CONSUMERS OF ZARA
* Exploitation in Topy, a top supplier for ZARA *
The reality of the workers in the textile sector is currently dramatic and troubling. Despite the siren calls and the triumphalism of the last governments, with respect to the increase in productive employment and textile products in recent years, textile workers are the worst paid of the Economically Active Population and the most affected by the brutal onslaught of local entrepeneurs (with work shifts exceeding 12 hours in some cases and starvation wages). Powerful groups in the industry - such as the Flores Conislia family - violate and undermine the dignity and fundamental rights of Topy Top workers. A fundamental right in any "modern democracy", such as the right to unionize, is an affront to the owners of Topy Top. These people are systematically harrassing and arbitrarily firing all unionized workers - like on last May Day. The current corrupt government is passive and inert (perhaps complicit?) regarding this. Using blatant anti-union tactics, 35 workers were thrown into the street last May, without any reasons to justify this; they have been replaced.
Let us not allow these crimes and illegal actions committed by the Flores Conislia group and others who are favoured by an outdated labour system (which comes from the Morales Bermúdez dictatorship), which should be ammended without further delay.
We urge consumers to express their solidarity with the workers of Topy Top and textile workers in general.
Consumer: think each time that you buy something in ZARA, it was produced at the expense of the sacrifice and shameless exploitation of hundreds of workers, who are not given basic social benefits such as profit sharing bonuses, CTS (severance pay) and whose right to unionize is violated. Many of these workers are young people who deserve to be treated with dignity, without systematic harrassment and criminal anti-labour tactics characteristic of totalitarian regimes.
www.libcom.org
www.iwa-ait.org
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