Celebrated Irish sports stars, including Brian O'Driscoll, Damien Duff and Dara Ó Cinnéide, will today be called on to challenge the "ruthless and exploitative tactics" of some of their sportswear sponsors.
In a report being published in over 20 counties, Oxfam and the Clean Clothes Campaign will also call on sportswear companies Fila, Puma, Umbro, Asics, Adidas and Mizuno "to clean up their acts". The report, Time To Play Fair, says giant sportswear brands are violating the rights of millions of workers around the world to fill shops with the latest and cheapest sports shoes, clothes and accessories in time for the Athens Olympics.
Mr Colin Roche, campaigns and advocacy executive with Oxfam Ireland, said that while the campaign did not seek to personalise its concerns or to detract from the achievements of Irish sportsmen and women, it was up to them and their organisations to "urge their sponsors to ensure workers' rights are being protected".
Adidas, which sponsors rugby internationals Brian O'Driscoll and Ronan O'Gara, soccer players Damien Duff and John O'Shea, as well as the Dublin GAA team, is found in the report to use factories which pay below the minimum wage in China.
Umbro, which sponsors the Irish soccer team, is found to use factories where fines are imposed for flaws in production and workers are regularly on 12-hour shifts, with five hours longer at peak production times and pay is below the minimum wage. Other companies cited in the report for having their products manufactured in factories where women in particular are exploited are Puma - which sponsors Irish rugby international Anthony Foley and Kerry footballer Dara Ó Cinnéide - Fila, Lotto, Asics, Nike, Reebok and Lacoste.
The report draws on the testimonies of workers in Bulgaria, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and Turkey. It will be endorsed in Ireland by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and SIPTU. It is timed to coincide with preparations for the Olympics. "The sportswear industry is spending heavily on marketing in the run-up to this year's Olympic Games," said Mr David Begg, general secretary of the ICTU. "But the exploitation of workers' rights endemic in the industry is violating that Olympic spirit."
A spokesman for the IRFU said the Irish rugby team was sponsored by Canterbury. If individual players wished to "do private deals," they are permitted to do so, he said. A spokesman for the Gaelic Players' Association said the organisation was "in its infancy" and had not examined the issue in detail yet.
