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The Alviero Martini Spa company, specialized in bags and accessories identified by geographical maps but until about ten years ago also a protagonist on the catwalk during women’s fashion week, has been placed under judicial administration by the Court of Milan.
The commissionership decided by the Court of Milan
Following an investigation by the Carabinieri of the Labor Inspectorate Unit, the company, which for twenty years has been part of the Final Spa holding company, was «deemed incapable of preventing and stemming phenomena of labor exploitation within the production cycle» . In particular, the fashion house would have maximized profits by using “Chinese factories” and “using illegal and clandestine labour”, as stated in the provision of the Prevention Measures section of the Court of Milan which ordered the measure upon request by prosecutor Paolo Storari.
What is being criticized against the fashion house is above all the lack of control over the supply chain: the company would have “never carried out inspections or audits on the production chain to ascertain the real working conditions” and “the technical capabilities of the contracting companies enough to facilitate (culpably) subjects reached by substantial evidence regarding the crime of gangmastering”. The appointed commissioners, Marco Mistò and Ilaria Ramoni, will have the task of analyzing the production chain and carrying out “reputational checks” on suppliers, removing relationships with companies affected by gang-mastering phenomena and equipping the company with an organizational model to prevent crimes .
The company’s response
The company sent a press note announcing that it «had promptly made itself available to the relevant authorities, as neither the Company nor its representatives were under investigation, in order to guarantee and implement compliance with the regulations by all its suppliers in matters of employment protection”. In the note, the fashion house reiterates that «all the company’s supply relationships are governed by a precise code of ethics to protect work and workers, which every supplier is bound to respect. Where illegal activities carried out by third parties emerge, introduced without the company’s knowledge into the production chain, absolutely contrary to company values, it reserves the right to intervene in the most appropriate ways and locations, in order to protect workers first and foremost and the company itself” .
Exploitation of labour, Alviero Martini commissioner
The supplier survey
Like many other companies in the fashion sector that do not have the possibility of producing internally, Alviero Martini Spa had entrusted «through a procurement contract with a prohibition on subcontracting without prior authorization, the entire production to third-party companies, with complete outsourcing of the production processes ». However, in this specific case, among the third-party companies (or among those who worked under contract for third-party companies) there were Chinese factories which however employed irregular labour, who were not only made to work at night but even slept on the job site, in clear contrast with health and safety regulations. So as to ensure a production cost of around 20 euros for products which, in the shop, had a selling price of 350 euros. Furthermore, all this took place not far from the headquarters of the brand, founded in Milan in 1991, but just a few kilometers away, in an entirely Lombard triangle: between Milan, Pavia and Monza and Brianza.