By Emilio Parodi
MILAN, March 17 (Reuters) – Milan prosecutors on Tuesday placed fashion firms Alberto Aspesi and Dama SpA, owner of the Paul & Shark brand, under judicial supervision over alleged exploitation of migrant workers, legal documents show, the latest blow to Italy’s luxury sector.
The move brings to seven the number of high-end brands put under various forms of judicial administration because of suspected labour violations, while another 13 have been subject to inspections – cases that have tainted the sector’s image.
According to a 63-page judicial decree seen by Reuters, prosecutors placed the two firms under investigation, along with their two directors and three Chinese nationals who owned two workshops to which the brands had subcontracted production.
Being placed under investigation does not imply guilt or mean the case will go to trial.
Aspesi and Dama were not immediately available for comment.
LONG HOURS, LOW WAGES
Prosecutors appointed two judicial administrators to oversee the companies to “regularise” their workers and monitor compliance with labour rules and conditions.
The decree alleged the two companies were part of “an entrenched and tested system in which fashion brands outsource production to Chinese workshops that employ irregular and undocumented labour and exploit workers”.
In the two workshops, Guardia di Finanza tax police found eight of the 15 Chinese workers were off the books and “living in the country illegally”.
The decree said they were made to work 14-hour days, seven days a week, paid below the minimum set by collective labour agreements and in breach of safety rules. Many lived inside the factories.
The decree named Dama’s director as Andrea Dini, the brother-in-law of Lombardy region governor Attilio Fontana, a member of the right-wing League party, which is part of the national government.
“I rule out any criminal liability for my client and we will immediately engage with prosecutors to clarify everything,” said Dini’s lawyer, Giuseppe Iannaccone.
Fontana’s wife, Roberta Dini, is identified in the decree as holding a 10% stake in the company that owns the international Paul & Shark brand.
“My brother-in-law will certainly prove his innocence”, Fontana said in a statement, questioning “the attempt to link my name to his, as he is the owner of the company, in which I have no stake”.
Prosecutors said the subcontracting relationships between the Italian brands and the Chinese workshops continued until as recently as last month.
This showed them to be “completely indifferent to recent initiatives on the issue, both at a judicial level and at the level of soft law,” the decree said, referring to a good-practice fashion protocol signed by industry associations.
“Codes of ethics and management and control models are of no use when the pursuit of greater profit is based on production using labour in exploitative conditions”, the decree said.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi. Editing by Crispian Balmer and Mark Potter)
