US sports brand Nike is facing further accusations that workers in Indonesian factories that produce its apparel are abused at work. Nike, which owns Converse, admits that abuse has occurred among the contractors that make its shoes.

"As an affiliate of Nike, Converse takes matters of unfair labour practices very seriously and vigorously supports the protection of rights for the worker," said a statement from Nike. "Once notified about these issues within factories producing Converse product, immediate action was taken. Nike and Converse remain highly engaged with its factory partners so that the corrective actions are systemic and lasting."

Associated Press approached Nike after accusations of abuse of workers at factories run by outsource manufacturing partners Pou Chen and PT Amara in Indonesia. A Nike spokeswoman said the company was not aware of physical abuse occurring.

Nike in 2005 became the first major apparel company to disclose the names and locations of hundreds of plants that produce its sneakers, clothes and other products. It admitted finding “abusive treatment” in many of the Nike plants. The complaints ranged from workweeks that exceeded 60 hours to being forbidden to go to the bathroom.

The company has since invested heavily in training managers and more closely monitoring their activities. Nike has not published the locations of all factories making products for affiliate companies, which includes Converse, but plans to by the end of the year.

Regarding the new claims of abuse, Nike responded with the following statement:

"Nike has made significant progress in its Nike brand supply chain and we will continue to accelerate the optimisation of our affiliate supply chain. This includes – where possible – integration between factories producing affiliate branded product and those producing Nike-branded product, while aligning factories that exclusively supply affiliate brands to the standards outlined in the Nike Code of Conduct.

"Once we were notified of these issues, Nike and Converse took decisive action and immediately began implementing the following changes at PT Amara and Pou Chen:

• Engaged in direct interviews and conversations with workers and created action plans from results.
• Engaged the Fair Labor Association to independently review remediation and transparently report on the results.
• Pou Chen and PT Amara deployed special task teams to start implementing immediate actions at the factories.
• Reviewed and reinforced a confidential grievance process for workers to help with the immediate escalation of issues.
• Human Resource and cross-cultural training for the expatriate supervisors and managers. Bi-weekly training on this began immediately."

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