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BBC Panorama programme exposes LIDL "worked to death" factories

  • 24-09-2013 05:23AM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 50 ✭✭


    There was a great programme between 8.30 and 9pm tonight on BBC1. Undercover reporters done a great investigation. It visited factories in third world countries where people are worked to death , doing up to 19 hour shifts and locked in while doing the shifts, in cramped conditions ( like under tables), making clothes for lidl. Think of them when you are walking down the centre isles looking for a "bargain". Its is a long way from the sweatshops where the stuff is made. Working from 7 in the morning until 1 or 2 at night. And I'm sure worse goes on that what they found.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24195441


«13

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,917 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    Pretty misleading title isn't it?

    This clothes factory makes garments for many different retailers. It's hardly a LIDL factory.

    That said, the conditions sound appalling, but customers like myself are partly to blame. If I buy a 3 euro tshirt at Penney's, how much can I imagine the person who made it actually got paid? Or how much can I pretend that I never imagined that the person who made it worked in such conditions.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 50 ✭✭qapmoc


    osarusan wrote: »
    It's hardly a LIDL factory.
    The factory was working on a contract to supply Lidl with one and a half million pairs of jeans. The programme visited other factories too, and the name "Lidl" come up more than once. It never mentioned Pennies or Primark.
    Schnell. Ve have ways of making you vork.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 24,639 ✭✭✭✭Cookie_Monster


    doesn't really sound like Lidl's fault, or that they are even aware of it. In fact the linked article clearly suggests the factory owners are going out of their way to cover it up.
    They even provided timesheets for the night I watched the factory. They say the shift ended at 17:30.

    The paperwork looks convincing. If I hadn't seen it myself, I would never know that workers were being forced to work such long days.

    Kalpona Akter, from the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, says many factories hide the truth about working hours from Western retailers.

    If the factory is falsifying records what exactly do you expect Lidl to do, short of having a full staff of PI's in these countries? It's hardly beneficial for anyone if Lidl (or any other brand) pull out of Bangladesh altogether and take jobs from those factories operating reasonable standards as well as those that are not.

    Blame lies squarely with the greedy factory owners and the Bangladeshi gov and courts for not stopping this type of thing IMO.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 38,227 ✭✭✭✭Guy:Incognito


    Just buy from pennys instead, nothing ever happens to the well run factories for their well paid staff in, say , india.............


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,478 ✭✭✭Hootanany


    Are top brands not made there as well?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,359 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Panorama is almost comical in the way picks on companies and sensationalises to try and confirm their almost liableous accusations.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,180 ✭✭✭Sunglasses Ron


    Germans running harsh work camps to feed the need for the fatherland to acquire cheap goods?

    You're ****tin me.......


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,195 ✭✭✭Corruptedmorals


    Just buy from pennys instead, nothing ever happens to the well run factories for their well paid staff in, say , india.............

    Yeah that 8 storey factory where Penneys had their clothes made...on one floor. They've made no bones about trying to help the situation, the survivors and their families. Deafening silence from the retailers using the other 7 floors.

    Apart from American Apparel and wooly Irish jumper shops etc, basically everything is made in these countries. It's unfair to have a scapegoat. I know for a fact River Island use the exact same suppliers as Penneys, Dorothy Perkins the same as Dunnes Stores...which would implicate the group Dorothy P is a part of- Topshop, Burton etc.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,204 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    Grrrrr!! I HATE this crap! What the hemorrhaging furk are we doing, working people to death in this day-and-age so we can have "bargains"?? :mad:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,433 ✭✭✭✭Mr Benevolent


    jimgoose wrote: »
    Grrrrr!! I HATE this crap! What the hemorrhaging furk are we doing, working people to death in this day-and-age so we can have "bargains"?? :mad:

    Because we like cheap stuff?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 38,227 ✭✭✭✭Guy:Incognito


    Yeah that 8 storey factory where Penneys had their clothes made...on one floor. They've made no bones about trying to help the situation, the survivors and their families. Deafening silence from the retailers using the other 7 fkoors.

    Im sure the dead people are all chuffed that steps are being taken afterwards.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,204 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    Because we like cheap stuff?

    I don't. Not at that price.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 38,227 ✭✭✭✭Guy:Incognito


    jimgoose wrote: »
    Grrrrr!! I HATE this crap! What the hemorrhaging furk are we doing, working people to death in this day-and-age so we can have "bargains"?? :mad:

    We could make all the clothes here, pay fair wages and higher prices. The people in 3rd world countries would still be poor ( or even worse off seeing as theyd have no wage at all)


    Your allowed not buy stuff from there. Ive no issues with where my goods come from.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,179 ✭✭✭hfallada


    Lidl pay their staff €11,85 an hour here and give them private health insurance, pensions and paid holiday. Meaning its not all about greed for lidl.

    They have no control of what their suppliers in the third world produce. But when you go to lidl a large amount of their specials eg hedge cutters etc are made in Germany.

    I hate the way people always associate cheap something with ****ty rights for the workers. Most american branded designer clothes are made in sweatshops but no one cares anymore. It's up to the government to protect its people from shady business owners and no Europeans thousands of miles away


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,433 ✭✭✭✭Mr Benevolent


    jimgoose wrote: »
    I don't. Not at that price.

    Where are you going to get new socks and underwear from now? You'd better knit them yourself if your don't want virtual slave labour making them. Perhaps you could commission a few pairs from Louis Copeland? I'm told Saville Row do a nice line in Y-fronts.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,204 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    We could make all the clothes here, pay fair wages and higher prices. The people in 3rd world countries would still be poor ( or even worse off seeing as theyd have no wage at all)


    Your allowed not buy stuff from there. Ive no issues with where my goods come from.

    Or we could make the clothes in the Third World, pay fair wages for sensible working hours and decent working conditions, use buildings that are unlikely to collapse, and pay slightly higher prices.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,204 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    Where are you going to get new socks and underwear from now? You'd better knit them yourself if your don't want virtual slave labour making them. Perhaps you could commission a few pairs from Louis Copeland? I'm told Saville Row do a nice line in Y-fronts.

    One word - Commando. :cool:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,195 ✭✭✭Corruptedmorals


    Im sure the dead people are all chuffed that steps are being taken afterwards.

    Better than completely ignoring it, no?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,780 ✭✭✭Frank Lee Midere


    Because we like cheap stuff?

    This stuff could be as cheaply made by machines in the west. And it's not just the cheap stuff. It's all the stuff. Blame the profit makers not the consumers.

    If panorama were to really oppose this the only solution is trade restriction.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,359 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    jimgoose wrote: »
    Or we could make the clothes in the Third World, pay fair wages for sensible working hours and decent working conditions, use buildings that are unlikely to collapse, and pay slightly higher prices.

    We could if there wasn't corrupt governments and companies willing to take advantage.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,250 ✭✭✭✭bumper234


    Op mentions Lidl in the title but fails to mention these same factories were making products for Baby Gap and edinburgh woolen mills.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,780 ✭✭✭Frank Lee Midere


    Where are you going to get new socks and underwear from now? You'd better knit them yourself if your don't want virtual slave labour making them. Perhaps you could commission a few pairs from Louis Copeland? I'm told Saville Row do a nice line in Y-fronts.

    This is a fallacy. The west could do this with more mechanisation. Or lower margins or both. Prices won't have to increase.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,380 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    Im sure the dead people are all chuffed that steps are being taken afterwards.

    Without dead people, standards don't improve.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,234 ✭✭✭✭Cee-Jay-Cee


    qapmoc wrote: »
    The factory was working on a contract to supply Lidl with one and a half million pairs of jeans

    You mean there are actually 1.5 million people walking around in Lidl jeans, I didn't think anyone was cheap enough to buy them but obviously not.
    jimgoose wrote: »
    Or we could make the clothes in the Third World, pay fair wages for sensible working hours and decent working conditions, use buildings that are unlikely to collapse, and pay slightly higher prices.

    Tell us all how you propose to
    Implement that great idea? Would we write to the governments of those countries and ask that first of all they ensure factories are built to a specific safety level, that employees have to clock in and out each day and that we want random clock-in cards sent over to us here in Ireland to be checked regularly and that we here in Ireland want to set the basic/minimum pay rate for their country or have you another way of ensuring it happens? In theory it sounds great and it's the way it should be, in reality, it's never going to happen, ever.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,173 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    qapmoc wrote: »
    The factory was working on a contract to supply Lidl with one and a half million pairs of jeans. The programme visited other factories too, and the name "Lidl" come up more than once. It never mentioned Pennies or Primark.
    That's what Panorama do. They pick on the highest-profile brands and focus on their actions, because that's what gets the viewers in.

    If they mentioned the names of all the other retailers who use these factories, that would weaken their, "LIDL are slave traders" sensationalist headlines, so they deliberately select the information they release in order to make their case appear better.

    Panorama and Watchdog used to be great programmes, they used to be fair, even-handed and would give all sides a chance to tell their story.

    But in the interests of ratings they've sacrificed all that and they will only portray the story that they think will be popular, not the one that tells the whole truth.

    They're a couple of steps above the Sun and the Daily Mail, but only because they actually engage in some investigative journalism. The quality of their reporting is horrifically biased and should be viewed in the context that they're trying to shock you as best they can, they're not trying to tell you the truth.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,250 ✭✭✭✭bumper234


    CJC999 wrote: »
    You mean there are actually 1.5 million people walking around in Lidl jeans, I didn't think anyone was cheap enough to buy them but obviously not.


    They were childrens jeans that were being made made and you have to remember Lidl have upwards of 5000 stores all over Europe


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,204 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    CJC999 wrote: »
    ...In theory it sounds great and it's the way it should be, in reality, it's never going to happen, ever.

    I'd imagine the likes of Kier Hardie and Jim Larkin used to hear something similar quite a lot. I am far indeed from a raging leftie, but it occurs to me that a small bit of fair-fúcks shouldn't be out of the question in the 21st century? But the pragmatic, hard-headed businessmen obviously know more than me, and so the race to the bottom proceeds apace.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,456 ✭✭✭fishy fishy


    qapmoc wrote: »
    The factory was working on a contract to supply Lidl with one and a half million pairs of jeans. The programme visited other factories too, and the name "Lidl" come up more than once. It never mentioned Pennies or Primark.
    Schnell. Ve have ways of making you vork.

    can you point out where it says they were working on 1.5 million pairs of jeans for lidl.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,296 ✭✭✭Frank Black


    I've said it before and I'll say it again, the West needs to stop purchasing stuff from the Developing World. The only way we'll conquer poverty there is by returning people to subsistence farming methods.


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 326 ✭✭Savoir.Faire


    I've said it before and I'll say it again, the West needs to stop purchasing stuff from the Developing World. The only way we'll conquer poverty there is by returning people to subsistence farming methods.

    Absolutely. Until they cast off the shackles of the imperialist whitey who oppresses them and start a glorious socialist revolution of the people.


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