“Fashion brand Zara once again associated with Brazilian labour rights abuses”, 9 May 2015

Zara does not have sufficient oversight of its supply chain. New findings of the Brazilian labour inspection…describe…labour rights violations in the company’s supply chain. A research report by SOMO and Repórter Brasil…reaches the same conclusion. In 2011, Brazilian inspectors found cases of modern-day slavery in Zara’s supply chain. After the scandal, Zara promised improvements by monitoring its supply chain more closely. The new inspection findings and the research report reveal that Zara is not living up to the agreements made with the Brazilian authorities at that time…[T]he research report exposes Zara’s dodgy legal strategy to avoid liability for Brazilian labour rights abuses…SOMO and Repórter Brasil argue that corporations with…strong purchasing power…[like Zara]…, and that pressure for low prices and tight delivery deadlines, are in fact contributing to human rights abuses. Precisely for this reason they should be held liable for human rights violations in their production chains…The organisations also call on the Brazilian government to strengthen the legal basis of the dirty list so that it can withstand attacks by companies such as Zara…