PT Kizone: Facts Concerning adidas’ Food Vouchers

At this link, please find a memo concerning the PT Kizone case and the “food voucher” program that adidas has cited as evidence of its commitment to the former workers of this factory. Because adidas has placed so much emphasis on the food vouchers in its public communications, we want to make sure our university affiliates are aware of the nature of this program and of how it is viewed by workers. This memo presents the key facts pertaining to the voucher scheme, including the following:

1. The representatives of the PT Kizone workers opposed the use of vouchers – as an inappropriate and inadequate substitute for paying workers the money they are lawfully owed.  
2. Adidas’ designed the vouchers without regard to the needs and circumstances of the affected workers. As a result, the vouchers – whose face value was only 7% of workers’ severance entitlement – were worth far less to workers than an equivalent amount in cash.
3. Adidas’ had no legitimate basis for substituting food vouchers for money workers legally earned. The vouchers therefore do not constitute even a partial remedy to the university code of conduct violations in this case.

For additional detail, including worker testimony regarding the food voucher program, please see the memo.

As always, please contact us with any thoughts or questions.

Scott Nova 
Worker Rights Consortium 
5 Thomas Circle NW 
Washington DC 20005 
ph 202 387 4884 
fax 202 387 3292 
[email protected] 
www.workersrights.org