'Less Than $1 an Hour Pay, Being Called Monkeys and Morons and Unpaid Overtime': Workers Inside Indonesian Factory That Makes Ivanka Trump Branded Clothing Reveal Dire Conditions Although Women do Get Paid Extra to Work on Their Monthly Period
- The Guardian published an expose of workers inside of an Indonesian factory that makes Ivanka Trump branded clothing
- The PT Buma Apparel Industry factory in Subang is made up of mostly women and one described being unable to support her kids on the factory wages
- Workers complain of making less than one dollar a day, among the lowest wages in the country
- Workers said they suffered verbal abuse by superiors, being called 'animals' or 'monkeys'
- They also allege overtime often goes unpaid and workers are routinely fired before Ramadan, which by law is supposed to be paid time off
- If women work during their period they get a $10.50 monthly bonus
The Guardian/Daily Mail UK, 28 June 2017
Workers inside one of the factories that makes Ivanka Trump's brand name clothing have revealed they receive some of the lowest pay in the country, have impossible-to-meet production targets and claim that overtime is often unpaid.
Some employees inside of the PT Buma Apparel Industry factory in Subang, West Java, Indonesia, one of the factories that makes Ivanka Trump clothing, said that they're subjected to verbal abuse, are too poor to live with their children, have never received any raises other than what the government requires, are denied government-mandated Ramadan pay, and have bosses who stealthily clock out workers at 4pm even if they work later
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Ivanka has projected an image of being for the working woman, but a woman who works on her clothes in a factory in Indonesia burst out laughing at the idea, saying she is paid so little she can't afford to live with her kids. Ivanka is pictured in Wisconsin on Tuesday
The workers in the Huajian, China shoe factory that produces some of Ivanka's branded shoes (above) complained of similar treatment to what the workers in Indonesia complained of
Ivanka, above with some of her branded merchandise at a Canadian trade show, is where the buck stops, said a labor activist
PT Buma, a Korean-owned garment company started in Indonesia in 1999, is one of the suppliers of G-III Apparel Group, the wholesale manufacturer that has an exclusive agreement to license the Ivanka Trump brand.
Alia, whose name was changed for fear of losing her job, said that even after years of work at PT Buma, she and her husband, who works as well, are still too poor to have their children live at home with them.
They live with their grandmother hours away by motorcycle, and only have enough money for gas to visit them once a month.
Alia makes 2.3million rupiah, or about $173 a month, the legal minimum wage, but among the lowest in Indonesia. Hours are 7am to 4pm, which would make hourly pay less than a dollar an hour.
Workers on a production line at the Huajian shoe factory in Dongguan; Su Heng had been working undercover at a Huajian shoe factory in Dongguan
Workers on a production line at the Huajian shoe factory in Dongguan, in south China's Guangdong province - workers had complained about excessive hours and low pay
Subang, West Java, Indonesia (above) is the site of one of the factories that makes Ivanka Trump branded clothing
'You have to assess minimum wages in the context of the country itself and, in that context, it’s not a living wage,' said David Welsh, Indonesia and Malaysia director at the Solidarity Center.
Welsh said that pay can vary greatly per jurisdiction within the country, and factories keep migrating to the lowest paying areas.
Alia says she rents two rooms for $30 a month and has decorated them with pictures of her children as she can't afford to have them live with her.
Ivanka's father may have been accused of having anti-Muslim policies, but the majority of the workers on her clothes in Indonesia are Muslim
Alia, like most of the workers, is Muslim. She and her husband, Ahmad, are aware of Donald Trump's attempts to ban certain majority Muslim country's citizens from entering the US, but he says:
'We don’t like Donald Trump’s policies. But we’re not in a position to make employment decisions based on our principles.'
When told about Ivanka's book Women Who Work, Alia laughed and said her fondest dream as a working woman would be able to afford to see her children more than once a month.
About three quarters of the factory's workers are women, and only 200 of the 2,759 total workers at Buma PT are unionized, said The Guardian.
Being forced to work overtime with no extra pay was a common complaint, said the outlet.
Sita, 23, said, 'I can’t stand it any more. I work unpaid overtime every day and still earn just 2.3 million [rupiah] a month. I’m planning to move from Subang, where the minimum wage is too low. But I don’t know where to go yet. I haven’t got any connections.'
Workers are given expected 'production targets' per half hour, but they are far above what workers can reasonably do, said the sources within the factory.
G-III workers at a factory in China have been found to be working for at or below minimum wage and up to 82 hours a month of overtime, which is against Chinese law - above, a G-III shoe factory in Dongguan, where about 100,000 pairs of Ivanka Trump shoes were made
'Using unrealistic production targets to justify unpaid overtime is very common,' said Andriko Otang, of Indonesia’s Trade Union Rights Centre.
A timetable with production targets of 58 and 92 garments per half hour, while the actual numbers produced are recorded as 27 to 40, was shown to the outlet's reporter.
Seven workers told the paper that verbal abuse from superiors was common, such as being called epithets such as 'animals, moron and monkey.'
Additionally, workers said they are routinely fired right before Ramadan, which is required as paid time off per law, and rehired after it is over.
Every worker the outlet interviewed said they don't want to join a union for fear of being fired.
However, the workers said their jobs weren't all bad - they have three months paid maternity leave, far higher than a lot of American companies have, mandatory federal health insurance and a monthly bonus of $10.50 if they don’t take a day off for menstruation. (Which works out to about ten days pay if a woman works through her period.)
One woman was even happy she wasn't working on her parents' farm as at least the factory 'has air conditioning.'
Jim Keady, an American labor rights activist who has worked extensively in Indonesia, said that even if the factory is paying the legal wage, that doesn't make it right if people can't afford to live on it.
'With these poverty wages - and I would call it that - just because something is legal, doesn’t mean it is moral,' he said.
He puts the blame on Ivanka Trump, as she has the power to do something about the situation.
'The buck stops with her,' he said. 'It’s her name that’s on the dress. Without her there is no brand.'
Carry Somers, founder of Fashion Revolution, a non-profit that calls for greater transparency in the fashion industry, said 'Ivanka Trump claims to be the ultimate destination for Women Who Work, but this clearly doesn’t extend to the women who work for her in factories around the world.'
Last month, two men disappeared and one was arrested after working to expose conditions in a Chinese factory that makes Ivanka Trump branded shoes
One man who worked in the warehouse section of the Indonesian factory put it succinctly when he said
'Sure I’m proud to make clothes for a well-known brand. But because I see the price tags, I have to wonder, can’t they pay us a bit more?'
Neither the White House nor anyone from the Ivanka Trump brand would comment for the story.
Last month, Su Heng and Li Zhao, two undercover workers at a Huajian, China factory that produced Ivanka Trump shoes went missing after China Labor Watch, which monitors conditions inside sweatshops, was set to release a damning report about conditions within the factory.
Workers inside the Huajian factory that produced some of Ivanka Trump branded shoes also complained about low pay, unpaid overtime, and unrealistic production targets.
Another activist who worked with China Labor Watch, labor rights activist Hua Haifeng, was arrested.
On June 5th, the U.S. State Department called for the immediate release of the three men.
The next day, China rejected the call.
Ivanka stepped down from running her company in January but often still promotes the brand by wearing it.
Ivanka's father, Donald Trump, ran on a platform of giving Americans back jobs lost to other countries, but the vast majority of his and his daughter's branded merchandise is made abroad.
He also has all his suits and ties made in factories in poorer countries.
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