Shocked Zara shoppers in Turkey have discovered desperate notes in their new clothes, written by the unpaid workers who made them.
The factory workers reportedly left the emotional pleas for help on the price tags of the garments.
One of the scribbled messages read – ‘I made this item you are going to buy, but I didn’t get paid for it.’
The disgruntled workers have apparently been infiltrating Zara stores in Istanbul and surreptitiously scrawling the notes on tags in an attempt to raise awareness of their plight.
Zara had been outsourcing the manufacturing of their clothing to a Bravo Tekstill factory that makes clothes for Inditex, Zara’s parent company, but it has reportedly closed down overnight.
The factory’s worker were left with months of wages unpaid and the company ducked the paying of a severance allowance.
In response to the situation an online petition has been launched to raise awareness, which has already collected a massive 19,000 signatures.
Last month Zara’s parent company, Inditex, published a press release stating its dedication to working with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to “[enhance] labour conditions at all levels of the garment sector value chain”.
The release states that the two are working together on a project which is “targeted at improving management systems and working conditions in factories in China and Turkey”.
In response to the news, an Inditex spokesperson told The Independent,
“Inditex has met all of its contractual obligations to Bravo Textil and is currently working on a proposal with the local IndustriALL affiliate, Mango and Next to establish a hardship fund for the workers affected by the fraudulent disappearance of the Bravo factory’s owner.
“This hardship fund would cover unpaid wages, notice indemnity, unused vacation and severance payments of workers that were employed at the time of the sudden shutdown of their factory in July 2016. We are committed to finding a swift solution for all of those impacted.”
Zara has more than 2,200 stores worldwide and with an estimated net worth of over 8 million.
Rebecca joined the HRreview editorial team in January 2016. After graduating from the University of Sheffield Hallam in 2013 with a BA in English Literature, Rebecca has spent five years working in print and online journalism in Manchester and London. In the past she has been part of the editorial teams at Sleeper and Dezeen and has founded her own arts collective.
