Esprit is aware of the Clean Clothes Campaign’s report  that mentioned one of our supplier factories in Serbia, and found the report’s allegations disturbing. When we learned of the research, we hired a non-profit third party monitor to check the findings... Some of the Clean Clothes Campaign’s allegations were inaccurate, [...] although we agree that the legal wages are very low. We did not find evidence of forced overtime, although we identified gaps in management systems that could potentially allow improper pressure to be exerted on workers.

A key problem in the factory stems from the fact that it is still relatively new... In response, we are in the process of arranging training for management in the local culture to assure more sensitive handling of relations between workers and management. Part of this training will include developing effective grievance mechanisms to assure that worker complaints are handled properly...

Regarding the low legal wages in Serbia, as one of several brands in the factory, most of which were not identified by the Clean Clothes Campaign, our ability to raise wages unilaterally is limited. Esprit is a member of ACT, a group of 17 brands that has joined IndustriALL to promote better wages for apparel workers through promotion of collective bargaining agreements in apparel producing countries.