In a report released this week, Play Fair 2008 has charged the International Olympic Committee (IOC), organiser of the games, of tacit violation of workers' rights by its continuous silence on the widespread violation of fundamental labour standards, including the use of child labour, in factories producing goods under IOC license.

But, the IOC has consistently maintained that it is not responsible for monitoring labour conditions in the supply of Olympic sports goods. IOC officials have said on record that such a task is the business of the various national Olympic committees.

However, the Finnish national Olympic committee (KOK) has distanced itself from the Play Fair report, ‘No Medals for the Olympics on Labour Rights'. According to its general secretary, Jouko Purontakanen, Finland cannot take responsibility for what happens in China. ”KOK will be attending the Beijing Olympics as any other participant and can either decide to buy the products or not,” Purontakanen told IPS on the phone.

”We are powerless, we cannot do anything about it,” said Purontakanen.

But Hannu Ohvo, executive director of the Finnish Trade Union Solidarity Centre (SASK), one of the organisers behind Fair Play, said KOK has to come out with a more positive stand on the issues raised in the report.

”International labour standards are part of human rights and the KOK cannot be neutral on the issue of human rights,” Ohvo told IPS on phone

Presenting the findings to the media here early this week, Jukka Pääkkönen, information officer at SASK, said the IOC was playing the proverbial ostrich burying its head under the sand while workers producing Olympic goods have their rights trampled on.

Play Fair 2008, is a coalition of international trade union organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including the Finnish Chemical Workers' Union and the Union of Salaried Employees. It is a carry over of an earlier campaign named Play Fair at the Olympics launched a year ahead of the Athens Olympics in 2004.

The IOC, in a letter sent Jun. 18 to Play Fair 2008 in reaction to the report, has not indicated it would take any concrete measures against the four Chinese companies engaged in abusive labour practices in producing Olympic logo goods.

Instead the IOC's letter claims that since Play Fair has not provided it with the research methodology, it is unable to act.

”On several occasions the IOC has asked the Play Fair Alliance to share your research methodology. Without this information -- which is also not indicated in your report -- we are missing a key ingredient to interpreting the report data and its conclusions,” says the IOC.

The letter from the office of IOC President Jacques Rogge, and seen by IPS, states ”the IOC does not manage and control the production of all Olympic-related products across the world -- it has to do this by influence”.

According to him, the IOC has never agreed to sit at a negotiating table with Play Fair campaigners. ”All contacts have mainly been through correspondence,” he told IPS.

Play Fair 2008 researchers carried out interviews and investigations in early 2007 in four factories making Olympics licensed bags, headgear, stationery and other products. The companies are Lekit Stationary Co, Mainland Headwear Holdings Ltd., Eagle Leather Products, and Yue Wing Cheong Light Products.

The research was based on interviews with workers in three of the four factories. All interviews took place outside factory gates. Between 14 and 26 workers were interviewed in each case in anonymity due to fear of reprisals, according to Play Fair.

In the case of Taiwanese-owned LeKit, according to Play Fair, a researcher was embedded with the workers and worked alongside them for five days and then quit without getting paid or without a contract.

”All the factories studied revealed appalling disregard for their workers' health and for local labour laws and regulations” in working hours, pay scale and the hiring of minors”, the report says.

”No factory researcher gave special attention to women workers and gave the legally required maternity protection as required by Chinese laws,” says Fair Play 2008.

The sportswear industry is big business and estimated to be worth 74 billion US dollars. The industry is driven by corporate giants such as Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Puma, Fila, ASICS, Mizuno, Lotto, Kappa and Umbro.

Source: IPS - Inter Press Service News Agency