"Trail of broken promises: Levi’s denies justice to unlawfully fired workers in Türkiye"

After a serious instance of union busting at the Levi’s supply factory Özak Tekstil in Şanlıurfa, Türkiye, late in 2023, Levi’s made promises to uphold workers’ rights to freedom of association that the company failed to live up to in subsequent months. In response tonew research into the violations by the Worker Rights Consortium published earlier today, Clean Clothes Campaign renews its call on Levi’s to live up to its earlier promises and protect its workers’ right to organise freely.

Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) joins Turkish union BİRTEK-SEN in calling upon Levi’s and Özak/Kübrateks management, as well as other buyers sourcing from the Özak group to immediately offer all dismissed workers unconditional and collective reinstatement in their previously held positions, including payment of wage losses incurred from the date of their dismissal to the date of their return to work. We additionally demand that the workers who choose not to accept this offer are paid “union compensation” as per Turkish law. [...] 

Other buyers from Özak Global, which operates several facilities in Türkiye, including Hugo Boss and Inditex, were also contacted for support, but to no avail. With this report, these brands now have all the evidence that their supplier continues to be responsible for gross violations, and the failure to address, mitigate, and remedy those violations is a failure also of the brands’ due diligence obligations.

We have been informed that a complaint was filed against Levi’s, Hugo Boss, and Inditex for violation of their obligations under the German supply chain law on 24 May 2024 by the International Union Working Group Cologne (Internationaler gewerkschaftlicher Arbeitskreis Köln, IGAKK) on behalf of BİRTEK-SEN, and is presently under consideration.

Mehmet Türkmen, President of the BİRTEK-SEN union, says: “Levi's is a global leader in the jeans industry, with products sold in over 50,000 retail locations in more than 100 countries. Levi's, which promotes the image that it respects workers’ rights wherever it manufactures in the world and that its products do not involve exploitation, has actually turned its back on Özak Tekstil workers who have been resisting for months for their union rights and for humane and dignified living conditions.” [...]