Response by adidas
...Thank you for providing us with an opportunity to comment... Below you will find a brief description of our general approach to fair wages - which is the central issue in the CCC study – and an explanation of the wage-setting processes we have pursued in the Ukraine...
Our Fair Compensation Strategy requires that:
- We do not infringe on the rights of workers, their employers and governments to set fair wages as a minimum;
- We conduct due diligence and act when business partners are not compliant with the law or our Workplace Standards; and,
- We facilitate positive wage progression and fair wages in our supply chain...
Wages in Eastern Europe
The CCC report states, incorrectly, that adidas is producing goods in Bulgaria. We are not. However, we do have production in Ukraine and have benchmarked wages for that country.
To complete the benchmark, we reached out to the Ukrainian statistics office to obtain nationwide wage data and, in parallel, conducted wage surveys in each of our partner’ factories. From the combined data, we created a wage map. The mapping showed that our manufacturing partners were already paying a prevailing industry wage, one that was significantly higher than the legal minimum wage.
Since our initial benchmarking study, we have continued to track the wage payments for workers employed by these suppliers...
[full response attached]