Sex Abuse Alleged at Apparel Maker TRIGGER WARNING FOR RAPE/SEXUAL ASSAULT
Jordanian authorities arrested a manager at a factory that makes clothing for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other retailers after a female employee came forward to accuse him of rape, following what an activist group says were years of claims by other women workers of sexual abuse at the plant.
If the rape allegations are proved, it would highlight the difficulties Western companies sometimes face in assessing working conditions at the foreign plants that manufacture their products.
Wal-Mart, like many other large corporations, began using third-party monitors to pay surprise visits to the factories of its suppliers after a string of embarrassing revelations in the 1990s, including some suppliers' alleged use of child labor.
Since at least 2007, some workers at Classic Fashion Apparel Ltd., a Jordanian company whose clients include U.S.-based Wal-Mart and Target Corp., have claimed to a human-rights advocacy group that two factory managers were sexually abusing women.
But the factory owner and independent monitors employed by the retailers and the brands made at the factory said they were never able to corroborate the accounts because the accusers-typically guest workers from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka-never made an official complaint.
On Friday, however, a 26-year-old Bangladeshi woman, encouraged by the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, a U.S.-based group funded by labor unions, told Jordanian investigators that she had been raped by the factory's top manager since arriving in March, and she submitted to a medical examination.
The manager, Anil Santha, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of raping the woman, and has been jailed pending trial. Lt. Col. Mohamed Badr Baen of Jordan's human-trafficking office, which assisted in the probe, confirmed Mr. Santha had been arrested and detained but declined to comment further.
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(note: The above trigger warning applies to the following links as well)
Read more at the Wall Street Journal. Not a source that I normally read, but I got this in an e-mail from the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights. You can read their entire report here Link also includes a petition.
If the rape allegations are proved, it would highlight the difficulties Western companies sometimes face in assessing working conditions at the foreign plants that manufacture their products.
Wal-Mart, like many other large corporations, began using third-party monitors to pay surprise visits to the factories of its suppliers after a string of embarrassing revelations in the 1990s, including some suppliers' alleged use of child labor.
Since at least 2007, some workers at Classic Fashion Apparel Ltd., a Jordanian company whose clients include U.S.-based Wal-Mart and Target Corp., have claimed to a human-rights advocacy group that two factory managers were sexually abusing women.
But the factory owner and independent monitors employed by the retailers and the brands made at the factory said they were never able to corroborate the accounts because the accusers-typically guest workers from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka-never made an official complaint.
On Friday, however, a 26-year-old Bangladeshi woman, encouraged by the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, a U.S.-based group funded by labor unions, told Jordanian investigators that she had been raped by the factory's top manager since arriving in March, and she submitted to a medical examination.
The manager, Anil Santha, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of raping the woman, and has been jailed pending trial. Lt. Col. Mohamed Badr Baen of Jordan's human-trafficking office, which assisted in the probe, confirmed Mr. Santha had been arrested and detained but declined to comment further.
---------------------
(note: The above trigger warning applies to the following links as well)
Read more at the Wall Street Journal. Not a source that I normally read, but I got this in an e-mail from the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights. You can read their entire report here Link also includes a petition.