TUC urges fairness

Workers supplying sportswear for the 2012 Olympics must be free from the exploitation and abuse that has characterised the run up to previous Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been told.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber met with IOC representatives last month to urge them to ensure that all workplaces in Olympic and sportswear supply chains are free from poverty wages, insecure employment and excessive hours, and that workers be allowed to join unions.

He was representing Playfair 2012 — a coalition of unions and campaigning groups who want the IOC to ensure that companies involved in making the products do not abuse workers. Barber said: “There has been exploitation and ill-treatment in the run up to every previous Olympic Games, and we fear that such abuses are unlikely to have disappeared completely.”

Playfair 2012 wants such firms to be required to include the principle of respect for workers’ rights in the Olympic Charter and IOC code of ethics.

And it wants to make compliance with international labour standards a contractual condition in all licensing, sponsorship and marketing agreements.