The sportswear giants Under Armour and Columbia have been hit by claims of forced
Labour in a factory making their clothes , after systemic abuse and exploitation allegedly led to a worker’s death by suicide, i can exclusively reveal. The two companies have launched urgent inquiries over the death of a young Bangladeshi woman at a major supplier’s facility in Jordan , uncovered by a months-long investigation.
American Eagle, a major retailer with more than 1,000 stores in the US, admitted that it also uses the site and is taking remedial action. Tureza Akter, 21, died in her dormitory in November last year, just over a month after arriving at the Fine Apparel site in the city of Zarqa, over 19km north-east of the capital, Amman. It is run by Needle Craft, a major Jordan-based clothes manufacturing company. Ms Akter is said to have been fined many times for missing excessive targets. She was abused by a supervisor hours before she died, an official report states. Sources say that migrant labourers are tricked into “dehumanising” 16-hour days in the factory for less money than promised, while bosses intimidate them and withhold their passports.
Sexual Harassment is also said to be common. Members of the largely female workforce are apparently solicited by staff for sex and made to strip in front of managers. The factory owners have launched an independent review and say they are supporting Ms Akter’s family after her “tragic” death. i began its investigation after being alerted by Labour Behind the Label . The
British campaign group, which lobbies for workers’ rights in the
fashion industry, called the findings “horrifying and shameful”. Confronted with the evidence, the factory and companies it supplies have apologised to Ms Akter’s family and pledged to take action. But industry experts said the investigation also highlights wider concerns about Western consumers unknowingly buying products made on the backs of poor migrants, whose mistreatment is hidden in the global supply chains of multinational companies. Worker suicide Angelo*, the relative of a migrant labourer who still works at the factory, told i what allegedly led to Ms Akter’s death. She had been deducted 15 days of pay in the month leading up to her death because she couldn’t meet her daily targets, Angelo said through a translator. Pay reductions are common because the demands are “extremely high”, he added. On 17 November, 2023, Ms Akter felt sick and asked to return to her accommodation. A female supervisor is alleged to have scolded her and ordered the worker to remove her clothes. She then verbally abused her, telling her to go back to her own country. Ms Akter killed herself later that day. Her body was found by colleagues in a communal bedroom. i has seen distressing mobile phone footage recorded inside the dormitory moments after her coworkers discovered the scene. Angelo said they believe her “humiliation” was a major motivation for her suicide. Ravi*, a source who is familiar with the factory and has spoken with several of its workers, corroborated this account. He told i : “A supervisor was shouting at the worker. She told the worker: ‘You need to meet your targets. I don’t care what you do, how you do it, you need to meet your targets. If you cannot meet your targets, then go and hang yourself.’” A report by a senior member of Jordan’s labour ministry, seen by i , verifies that Ms Akter died by “suicide due to the mistreatment [by] her supervisor”. This was the second suicide in Zarqa’s clothing industry in a matter of months. A local news article published in September revealed that another worker from Bangladesh also “ took her own life ”. The abuse and death of Ms Akter caused outrage among workers at the factory. Many went on strike, despite this protest being against local laws. A video uploaded on TikTok shows high numbers of men and
Women from the factory marching through the streets . The official Jordanian report, written two days after her suicide, states that “Bengali workers… did not go to work because of the death of the female worker”. They “smashed the doors and windows” of a separate factory owned by Needle Craft, before going to another site where they “began throwing stones and
BREAKING the doors, windows and vehicles”. These demonstrations led to officials from the Bengali embassy and the Jordanian government being called in to help negotiate with the workers, according to the ministry’s report. They were told they could be fined 50 dinars (£55) because “their strike is illegal”. The workers demanded that the supervisor who abused Ms Akter should be sacked, together with two male managers. The company agreed, according to the report. It is not known what has happened since to these three individuals. Famous brands in focus
Sexual Abuse Angelo said that harassment is common for women in the factory, who receive “improper suggestions from male supervisors”. He claimed that a woman at the factory encourages prostitution by acting as a “broker”, trying to convince female staff to have sex with Indian and Pakistani male supervisors in exchange for money. He added that one female worker was recently sent back to Sri Lanka after becoming pregnant with the child of a male staff member, but the man didn’t face any punishment. Ravi said: “There is so much sexual harassment going on in the factory.” Some managers rub their bodies against the women and issue warning letters to those who complain, he claimed. Workers told Ravi that two of their colleagues have made complaints of sexual harassment to the
police – and their jobs were terminated as a result. Supervisors check workers who leave the factory floor to ensure they have not stolen any clothing. But this is an excuse to make the women strip down to their underwear for the “sexual pleasure” of supervisors, Ravi has been told. “There is so much sexual harassment going on in the factory” Harsh conditions Angelo said his relative is supposed to work six days every week. In reality, she’s often required to work all seven days and may only get a single day of rest in a whole month. There is believed to be no annual leave. Standard hours are from 8am to 5pm, but commonly workers must stay at the factory until 10pm, sometimes even midnight, Angelo said. They are only paid a maximum of three hours’ overtime, so any work after 8pm is unpaid. Ravi backed up Angelo’s account. He is troubled by the situation. “There’s a lot of shouting, a lot of swearing, at the workers in the factory,” said Ravi. “The number of stitches that they would do in a day would run into hundreds of thousands. They are supposed to work at the maximum speed of their machinery. “Supervisors are standing over their heads, shouting at them, saying that they cannot get up from their desks and do the things which we would take for granted, like look at their phone messages, go for a coffee break, go for a toilet break. These workers cannot do any of that. They’re treated like robots.” Their treatment is “dehumanising”, he said. “I don’t think anyone in the Western world would agree to life and working conditions like this.” ‘They’re treated like robots’ Forced labour Impoverished migrant workers at factories such as Fine Apparel are enlisted in developing nations, believing they will earn more abroad than they could at home and will be able to send money back to their families. When they arrive, however, they often realise they have been deceived on pay and conditions, according to Ravi. “They are told they will get 220 Jordanian dinars a month [about £245]. But factories deduct accommodation and food costs from that salary, so workers are left with roughly 120 dinars a month.” Unsurprisingly, many workers want to escape the factory, according to both sources. But Ravi said the doors of their accommodation units are locked shut at night after their shifts to prevent them leaving. The owners of Fine Apparel have withheld the workers’ passports, according to Angelo. He claims that his distressed relative is among those who desperately want to flee Jordan altogether, but the managers refuse to hand over their documents and insist they must stay for three years – unless they can pay for their release after two. He said that officials from the Sri Lankan embassy arrived at Fine Apparel after workers from the island took part in
protests over Ms Akter’s death. They asked the factory owners to return passports to the workers and the managers are said to have agreed, but have since reneged on their pledge, according to Angelo. However, the factory owners dispute this, saying: “The factory does not retain passports outside of residency permit renewals.” Contracts and other employment papers are also being kept from workers, said Ravi. Scott Nova, executive director of the US-based Worker Rights Consortium, reviewed i ‘s investigation. He said it appears to have uncovered 10 out of 11 indicators of forced labour , as defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a
United Nations agency. The ILO sums up forced labour as “ work that is performed involuntarily and under the menace of any penalty ”. This includes “situations in which persons are coerced to work through the use of violence or intimidation, or by more subtle means such as manipulated debt, retention of identity papers or threats of denunciation to
immigration authorities”. It adds that work cannot be considered voluntary “when an employer or recruiter makes false promises so that a worker take a
Job he or she would not otherwise have accepted”. Brand links to the abusive factory Exploitation of migrant women in Jordan Many clothing brands cut their ties with manufacturers in Jordan in 2011 after a 27-year-old Bangladeshi garment worker told police that she had been raped three times by her Sri Lankan boss . The accused man, who denied the claims, was never prosecuted because he fled back to Sri Lanka . The story caused shockwaves throughout the industry. But in the years that followed, gradually business returned to Jordan. The Arab nation first became a major centre for clothes manufacturing thanks to trade arrangements with the US in the 1990s. “ Qualifying industrial zones ” (QIZ) were created, allowing duty-free exports of clothes made in these areas to the US. A wider free-trade agreement was signed by the two countries in 2000. The
UK has a “preferential” trade agreement with Jordan signed in 2021 and the nations intend to sign a free-trade deal in the next decade. Fine Apparel is located in one of the QIZs, the Ad-Dulayl Industrial Park. It was opened by Jordan’s King Abdullah II in 2001 on the outskirts of Zarqa, Jordan’s second largest city. Workers in these zones are “ extremely vulnerable to abuse , and their legal status is completely dependent upon the whim and goodwill of their employers”, according to the Clean Clothes Campaign, a Netherlands-based NGO. Although QIZs were intended to provide employment for Jordanian workers, in reality about 70 per cent of labourers are migrants who are recruited in their home countries. Most locals are discouraged by the low wages and long working hours. Speaking to
Middle East Eye in 2018, a young female worker summed up the experience of many migrant labourers in Jordan. “I have four sisters back in Bangladesh. I came here to send funds back to them ,” she said. “My family is poor, so I had to find a way to make more money.” The Clean Clothes Campaign says: “QIZ employers prefer Asian labour because they are vulnerable to being exploited by employers, by working long hours under harsh living conditions. They accept the mistreatment because otherwise they would lose their job or be deported, and lose the opportunity to work.” The organisation explains that many factories hold onto their workers’ passports and do not provide them with access to contracts or other employment documents. It adds: “Some migrants are deceived with unreal employment contracts and wages. Once they are in Jordan, they are forced to sign different contracts with much less monthly salaries than previously agreed upon. “Many workers are forced to work 10-14 hours per day with little or no rest days and paid overtime. The vast majority of workers are women and reports of sexual harassment and abuse are common.” An ILO initiative called Better Work Jordan began work in 2009 to improve conditions. It formed a taskforce in 2012 “to prevent and address sexual harassment in the workplace”. In 2017, however, a Better Work report acknowledged: “ Sexual harassment remains high in factories because it is often large numbers of women, young, inexperienced and in some cases, illiterate, being supervised by a small number of men. “Stereotypes of garment workers being perceived as promiscuous and having ‘low status’ also play a role, as does the intense industry pressure to meet production targets, which can lead to abusive disciplinary practices on the factory floor.” Later, it revealed that two migrant garment workers in Jordan killed themselves in October 2020. That followed four reported suicides in 2019 and another case involving a Nepalese clothing labourer in 2018 .
Sexual Assault and harassment are illegal in Jordan, but a US State Department report in 2022 noted that the authorities do not “effectively enforce the law” and that garment workers are “especially vulnerable to gender-based violence in the workplace”. With no overtime limits in law, some clothing labourers work “as many as 70 to 75 hours per week”, and they can face “hazardous and exploitative working conditions”. Better Work hopes that by 2027 “workers’ rights are upheld and protected in line with national labour laws and core international labour standards”. Years of supply chain abuses Campaigner outrage The allegations emerging from Fine Apparel are “horrifying and shameful”, according to Dominique Muller, policy lead at Labour Behind the Label. “The testimonies reveal a pattern of forced labour for these vulnerable workers,” she said. “No fashion brand should be sustaining profits based on this model of exploitation. No worker should have to endure abuse, harassment and denial of their basic right to movement. “Migrant women in Jordan face discrimination in their workplace, yet who is looking out for them? The garment industry in Jordan is littered with reports of basic
Human Rights abuses – there must be more accountability and protection. States exporting young female workers across the globe, like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, must also do more to protect their workers from daily abuse. “Under Armour, Columbia and American Eagle must be held legally and financially accountable for these alleged abuses – and ensure the safe return of any worker wishing to leave the factory, along with compensation and all unpaid wages. “For too long, consumers have had to rely on vague promises by brands that their clothes are not made by exploited or forced labour. This case really highlights the urgent need for binding legislation holding big brands to account, who for too long have tried to subcontract responsibility to voluntary initiatives and private audit companies.” John McNally, the MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group for ethics and sustainability in fashion , agreed that i ‘s findings are “really quite alarming”. “It is very worrying indeed for us all,” he said. “These terrible outdated practices need to be stopped. The industry cannot continue to support such pitifully poor standards and should cut all connections immediately.” Maya Linstrum-Newman of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women campaign group said the abuse leading to Ms Akter’s suicide was “extremely concerning”. “We stand in solidarity with the workers at this factory and with Tureza’s
Friends and loved ones,” she said. “All women have the right to be paid a fair wage, to be treated with respect and dignity at work, and to be allowed to change their employer. We hope the governments of Jordan and Bangladesh will ensure that justice is done in this case and that the brands that are buying the products made at this factory will take their human rights obligations more seriously.” “For too long, consumers have had to rely on vague promises by brands that their clothes are not made by exploited or forced labour” Apologies and promises of action Fine Apparel is one of three factories owned by Needle Craft, which had about 11,000 workers and 3,400 sewing machines, according to a promotional video it posted online in 2022. Mohamed Salim, a senior manager at the factory, told i that following the “tragic loss of a team member”, Needle Craft would continue paying Ms Akter’s salary to her family for two years. “We are profoundly saddened by this heartbreaking loss and offer our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones grieving during this incredibly difficult time,” he said. “We recognise the severity of these allegations and are actively working to identify gaps and prevent any potential future occurrences. An external independent review will soon be under way to ensure thorough and unbiased resolution of these matters.” He said that Needle Craft has introduced enhanced supervisor training; recruited welfare officers and psychologists; strengthened a “zero-tolerance policy” on sexual abuse and harassment and committed to “thorough investigations”; reinforced a policy of unrestricted dormitory access together with “stringent security protocols”; and “clarified variable working hours” with employees, which can fluctuate according to the availability of raw materials. “We unequivocally condemn all forms of sexual abuse and harassment. These deplorable acts violate individual rights and dignity, causing irreparable harm. It is our collective responsibility to foster a safe, respectful, and supportive environment for everyone, free from fear and intimidation,” he added. “To address concerns about unfair pay practices and passport retention, we’ve clarified our recruitment processes and clarified workers’ benefits, ensuring all practices comply with labour laws. The factory does not retain passports outside of residency permit renewals.” “It is very worrying… These terrible outdated practices need to be stopped” An Under Armour spokesperson said that the company has initiated an urgent investigation. “Under Armour is deeply concerned by the alarming reports out of one of our supplier factories,” they said. “We expect our factory partners to cultivate a secure working environment for their employees, and these reports are wholly inconsistent with our partnership requirements, standards, and values. “Across our supply chain, Under Armour mandates that our partners adhere to all applicable laws and standards, including our supplier code of conduct, which requires all suppliers and subcontractors to treat employees legally, ethically, and fairly. “As a direct response to these reports, Under Armour immediately initiated an independent investigation led by a third-party firm to thoroughly evaluate the living and working conditions at the Needle Craft factory in Jordan. “We are resolute in our commitment to take decisive action and will require the Needle Craft factory to undertake all necessary measures to rectify the issues identified during the investigation.” A spokesperson for Columbia said their company is “aware of the tragic events surrounding the death of a person who worked at our manufacturing partner, Fine Apparel”. Read Next Qatar migrant workers still face exploitation and harassment despite
World Cup promises Acknowledging that Ms Akter’s suicide is “devastating” for her family and co-workers, they added: “We are also concerned about allegations regarding labour violations in the supply chain at other factories in the region. These alleged practices are prohibited by our code of conduct. “Columbia Sportswear Company is committed to responsible sourcing and is absolutely in agreement that violations of our code of conduct cannot be tolerated. “We are investigating these allegations in collaboration with other brands sourcing from this factory. We are working with an independent third party to conduct this investigation and to formulate a remediation plan. “In addition, we are collaborating with Better Work Jordan which leads our in-country factory assessment and remediation work in Jordan.” An American Eagle spokesperson revealed the firm learned of the allegations in November and took them “very seriously”, saying: “We immediately engaged with Needle Craft and worked with the company to implement remedial actions.” Since then, the company has been “actively monitoring” the implementation of these “via onsite visits to ensure successful compliance with our supplier code of conduct”. American Eagle also participates with Better Work “for ongoing factory monitoring to improve worker engagement and training for management development”. Better Work said in a statement that it is “deeply concerned and saddened about the tragic death” of Ms Akter and the “many reported violations of workers’ rights at Fine Apparel”. “Protecting workers from retaliation, upholding and protecting their rights, and preventing workplace abuses are fundamental to the work of Better Work and to the ILO’s mission and work,” it said. Read Next Shein ‘forced labour’ claims put pressure on Hunt to shun firm’s
London move The organisation has “stepped up engagement with management and workers” at Needle Craft. It is supporting them by “strengthening the voice and effectiveness of migrant worker representatives on union labour committees, as well as grievance mechanisms in and outside of the factory, and focusing on gender-based violence and harassment prevention, improved compliance with wages and working hours legislation and mental health”. It added that the situation in Jordan’s garment sector is “very complex” because most workers are migrants. It has worked with the Jordanian government and the country’s industry by “supporting the establishment of a unified contract providing equal rights to migrant workers [and] supporting changes in labour laws to impose penalties for passport confiscation”. Reflecting on what the workers of Fine Apparel had told him, Ravi said there are lessons to be learnt for the clothing trade worldwide, because it keeps being shamed by stories like this one . “Customers don’t know about the conditions that workers suffer while making their clothes,” he said. “People leave this responsibility to the companies. They buy from companies thinking that they will be doing their due diligence and looking at things properly. “The firms all issue these big statements on their websites to say how good they are and what they’re doing with the people making their clothes. The reality of life on the ground is very different for the manufacturing workers.” He added that clothing brands using factories which they know use migrant labour must take responsibility. “Whenever they see a migrant worker, that raises a red flag. There are so many coming from overseas, so many different nationalities from developing countries – what are brands doing to make sure that they are not exploited like this?” *Names changed to protect identities @robhastings