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Audit reveals problems at Vietnam Nike factory
November 8, 1997
Web posted at: 10:47 p.m. EST (0347 GMT)BEAVERTON, Oregon (CNN) -- An internal audit has found a variety of unsafe working conditions at a Nike factory in Vietnam.
The audit said the Tae Kwang Vina factory, which is run by a Nike subcontractor in the Dong Nai province in Vietnam, lacks adequate safety equipment and training, encourages excess overtime, and exposes workers to hazardous chemicals, noise, heat and dust.
Workers are inadequately informed of the dangers associated with the chemicals, the audit said. Of a sample of 165 employees at the factory, 77 percent suffer from respiratory disease. Workers in chemical sections have increased levels of skin, heart, throat and allergic diseases.
The medical staff at the facility is deemed too small to serve the needs of such a large number of workers, the audit said. The water supplies are inadequate. Ear plugs are not available for the high noise.
The audit also said some workers at the 2-year-old plant had worked 700 hours of overtime in a year -- well above the Vietnamese national limit of 200 hours of overtime per year.
Ammunition for Nike's critics
The Ernst & Young accounting firm's audit, leaked to reporters Friday, added new ammunition for Nike's critics.
Human rights groups have slammed the Oregon-based Nike in recent weeks, saying that the company tolerates unsafe working conditions at its plants in Third World countries.
On Friday, company officials called a news conference after the audit was given to reporters by the Transnational Resource and Action Center, a San Francisco group that monitors conditions at American plants overseas.
Nike said the audit is a year old, and the company already has taken steps to improve working conditions at the factory, including strict adherence to the overtime limit. Steps have been taken to improve health care and safety at the plant, the company said.
"In some ways I'm happy it's out there," Dusty Kidd, Nike director of labor practices, said of the report.
Tien Nguyen, Nike director of labor practices in Vietnam, said he was overseeing tests on levels of manufacturing chemicals such as toluene and acetone, and that dust levels already had been reduced with improved ventilation.
Disgruntled employees
TRAC was given the report by Dara O'Rourke, an environmental consultant for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, who inspects factories in Vietnam. He obtained the report, which was scheduled to be released Monday, from a disgruntled Nike employee.
O'Rourke said he visited the plant three times this year and found that workers complained about factory conditions and unfair treatment by managers, including physical and verbal abuse.
"I talked to workers without management or Nike officials around, and I found conditions are much worse than Nike admits," said O'Rourke, who visited the factories for TRAC and not through his work with the United Nations.
Kidd said many of the complaints O'Rourke reported are typical in Third World countries because of different cultural and legal standards. Nike is the only major athletic shoe and clothing manufacturer in the world to routinely monitor conditions at plants run by its subcontractors, he said.
The factory employs 9,200 workers and produces 400,000 pairs of shoes a month, according to TRAC.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related sites:
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- Vietnam, Nike & U.S. imperialism - workers.org
- Saigon.com
- Nike
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