Judicial storm and shadows of exploitation of illegal Chinese labor on the main operational subsidiary of Giorgio Armani, one of the most famous stylists and entrepreneurs in the country. In fact, yesterday with a measure similar to that adopted months ago for Alviero Martini, another fashion brand and easily predicting that others will follow shortly, the Prevention Measures Section of the Court of Milan with a 31-page decree and following an investigation by the public prosecutors Paolo Storari and Luisa Baima Bollone and the carabinieri of the Labor Inspectorate Unit placed Giorgio Armani Operations (GAO) spa under judicial administration for one year. It is the company controlled by Giorgio Armani spa with 1,212 employees and a turnover of over 900 million euros which deals with the design and production of clothing and accessories for the fashion giant’s group: Piero Antonio Capitini is the judicial administrator with a scheduled hearing next June 19th and delegate judge Paola Pendino.
The investigation, which focuses on the alleged exploitation of labour, through the use of illegal factories in contracts for the production and the use of illegal and clandestine Chinese labour, sees a consolidated system which concerns various categories of goods, such as bags and belts, and which “is repeated – the judges write – at least from 2017 until the most recent investigations last February” with the production “of Giorgio Armani branded goods” made “concretely” by “Chinese factories, a production “active for over 14 hours a day, even on holidays”, with workers “subjected to exhausting work rhythms” and with a situation characterized by “danger for the safety” of the workforce, who worked and slept in “degrading housing conditions” and with wages “even of 2 -3 euros per hour, such as to be judged below an ethical minimum”. The Chinese companies Pelletteria Gold of Chen Xiulin, Pelletteria Giulio of Lu Shenjao, individual enterprise Wu Cai Ju and Cinturificio Li Wang were the four subcontractors of the orders received by GAO from the Italian companies Manifatture Lombarde (Milan) of Claudio Budel and from Minoronzoni (Bergamo ) by Giacomo Ronzoni, who work for other brands including Versace.
Gao, controlled by Giorgio Armani spa, would therefore have been “considered incapable – the investigators explain in relation to the judicial administration measure ordered by the Court of Milan – to prevent and stem phenomena of labor exploitation within the production cycle having not put in place implement suitable measures to verify the real working conditions or the technical capabilities of the contracting companies so as to (guiltily) facilitate subjects who have substantial evidence regarding the crime of gangmastering”. “The company – commented the parent company Giorgio Armani spa – has always had control and prevention measures in place aimed at minimizing abuses in the supply chain. GA Operations – concludes the note – will collaborate with the utmost transparency with the competent bodies to clarify its position on the matter”.
However, it was possible to ascertain, explain the Carabinieri, that “the fashion house entrusts, through an in-house company created specifically for the design, production and industrialization of fashion and accessory collections”, namely Gao, “through a supply, the entire production of part of the 2024 collection of bags and accessories to third-party companies, with complete outsourcing of the production processes”. The supplier company, however, “only nominally has adequate production capacity and can compete on the market only by in turn outsourcing orders to Chinese factories, which manage to reduce costs by resorting to the use of irregular and clandestine labor in conditions of exploitation”. An alleged “system” that would have allowed “the maximization of profits by inducing” the Chinese factory “that actually produces the manufactured goods to reduce labor costs (contributions, insurance and direct taxes) by resorting to illegal and clandestine labour, not observing the rules relating to health and safety in the workplace as well as not respecting the National Collective Labor Agreements of the sector regarding labor wages, working hours, breaks and holidays”.
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2024-04-10 04:06:19