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Reuters
Published
Jul 12, 2010
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Nike t-shirt workers at Indonesian factory call for payrise

By
Reuters
Published
Jul 12, 2010

JAKARTA, 9 (EP / Reuters) - The workers of a garment factory near Jakarta who make replicas of Holland, England and Australia football shirts for about five dollars a day are pushing to get pay doubled.

Nike
Nike Inc has contracted the production of some of their World Cup t-shirts to the textile manufacturer PT Tuntex in Jakarta, where workers earn a base pay of 1.1 million rupees (121.5 dollars) per month.

"That's not enough to live in Jakarta, so it means that almost all workers send their children to live in the outskirts with their relatives," said Alif Imam, an activist of Education for Justice NGO. "They work eight to nine hours a day, six days a week. We believe that Nike should give workers twice what they're earning per month," he added.

Spokesman for PT Tuntex, Sri Wijiastuti, said the company complied with the law and pay workers the local minimum wage. In a statement emailed to Reuters, Nike said it was committed along with the factories to provide workers a fair environment.

"Nike believes that local wage is best determined through negotiations between workers, their representatives, employers and the government," the statement said.

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