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Article

27 Jun 2024

Author:
Peter Bengtsen, Le Monde Diplomatique (France)

Taiwan: Bicycle manufacturer Giant, brands Trek & Scott linked to allegations of fee-charging & abusive living conditions for migrant workers; incl. co. comments

See all tags Allegations

"Are Tour de France bike-makers overlooking forced labour risks?"

...

Giant, the world’s biggest bike manufacturer, which is based in Taiwan, makes bikes for Team Jayco AlUla... Other Tour team suppliers such as Trek (Team Lidl-Trek) and Scott (Team DSM-Firmenich) have imported Giant-made bike frames for years...

In spring 2024, around a dozen of Giant’s migrant employees were interviewed for this story. Vietnamese employees said they paid around $5700 to home-country recruiters for jobs at Giant in Taiwan. Thai employees said they paid up to $3200...

Vietnamese employees also paid an additional $500-1000 deposit or ‘anti-escape fee’, they said, which recruiters told them would be returned only when they went home...

In June 2023, The US and Taiwan signed a trade agreement in which they committed ‘to eliminate the charging of recruitment fees and related costs to migrant workers’.

Yet all Giant interviewees, recruited between 2017 and 2024, said that — besides the up-front recruitment fees — they are continuously charged a monthly service fee by Taiwanese labour brokers, though no one felt they receive any service in return. The fee equals two months’ base wage per three-year contract and is legal in Taiwan. The fee is deducted by Giant and shown on workers’ payslips...

Some interviewees complained about crowded and dirty dorms. Photos shared with my team show up to 20 beds in narrow rooms. Some told us about punitive management practices including deportation, threats of deportation, and pay reductions for not obeying workplace or dorm rules. Others spoke of a points system with zero points might result in immediate deportation.

Giant didn’t acknowledge workers’ concerns, nor commit to remediation. ‘It is understood that some migrant employees pay recruitment fees to home-country recruiters, but our company is not involved in the negotiation and collection of such fees,’ the company said...

REI annually audits most of its suppliers of finished goods and works with suppliers to identify root causes of any audit finding that doesn’t align with its standards, then address the problems, the billion-dollar retailer said...

Trek, the consumer bike brand and supplier of Tour de France team Lidl-Trek, does not accept forced labour at suppliers, according to its online information which explains that ‘Trek requires its major suppliers to fully disclose their hiring and labour practices’. Did it ask Giant? Trek didn’t reply our request for a comment.

Scott said it is looking into the matter...

[Later reporting highlight the role of investors in these brands; see here. Following the posting of this article, the Resource Centre received a statement from Federated Hermes, which had been linked to Giant Manufacturing: “We previously had a small equity holding in Giant Manufacturing, which we have fully divested from based upon the fund's ESG criteria, which the company no longer meets”.]