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Article

24 Jul 2008

Author:
Steven Greenhouse, New York Times

Apparel Factory Workers Were Cheated, State Says [USA]

[S]tate labor officials said…[the factory] Jin Shun...in Queens — which made women’s apparel for Banana Republic, the Gap, Macy’s, Urban Apparel and Victoria’s Secret — cheated its workers of $5.3 million…No one answered the phone at the factory on Wednesday afternoon…In addition to claiming minimum wage and overtime violations, the Labor Department accused the factory of falsifying time records and coaching employees to lie to investigators, and of not paying a mandatory extra amount when employees worked more than 10 hours in a day…Macy’s said it was investigating the matter and was “very concerned about allegations”... Robin Olshavsky, a spokeswoman for Limited Brands, which owns Victoria’s Secret, said, “Our primary concern in a situation like this is the well-being of the workers involved.” She said that the company had a zero-tolerance policy for “vendors and factories that are unwilling or unable to work with us to achieve such compliance.” Dan Henkle, senior vice president of social responsibility at the Gap, which also owns Banana Republic, said, “We plan to fully cooperate with authorities to ensure the workers are treated fairly.” He said the company had no current production at the factory and was suspending future production there “until this investigation is satisfactorily resolved.”… The Labor Department announced that on Wednesday morning it placed special tags on more than 10,000 items of Jin Shun’s apparel, stating that the garments were produced under unlawful conditions…Urban Apparel paid state officials $60,000 to have the tags removed…The money covered the amount of wage violations that the department found had occurred when employees were making the tagged garments...State officials said…the factory’s owners recently changed its name to Garlee NY.