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Puma T-shirts available for sale. Photo: Martin Wurt/OxfamAUS.
Who is Puma?
The money: $4.5 billion in brand sales in 2006. Source: www.puma.com
The labels: Tretorn, Puma
The boss: Jochen Zeitz, Chief Executive Officer, Puma Inc.
The workers: 256,474 people around the world are making Puma branded apparel, accessories and footwear (puma 06 sustainability report)
The locations: Puma has suppliers in 43 countries worldwide. Main sourcing countries are in Asia, Turkey, Europe as well as South America. There are also suppliers in Africa and the Middle East.
What's the problem?
Puma is not doing enough to ensure that workers rights are respected in its supplier factories. Although Puma says its suppliers are expected to know they must never neglect "social standards" in the factory – Puma has not proven that it gives suppliers enough money and time to be able to observe workers’ human rights. The majority of workers making Puma must still work under extreme time pressure for low wages (also known as poverty wages).
We are encouraging Puma to change – find out more at Offside! Update
Poverty wages
Puma won’t commit to a living wage for workers making Puma products. We define a living wage as one which, for a full-time working week (without overtime), would be enough for a family to meet its basic needs and allow a small amount for discretionary spending.Rights denied
Puma continues to get its gear made in countries and free trade zones where it is either illegal, extremely difficult, or prohibited, for workers to organise themselves into trade unions. It is near impossible for workers to get better conditions (such as better pay) when they cannot get together and form a united, organised group to approach their boss.
No one's listening
Puma does not have a way that effectively allows workers in all its supplier factories to confidentially complain if they are suffering abuses in the workplace.
Commitment phobia
Puma moves its production where it likes, whenever it likes, and does not give any bonuses to factories that respect workers rights. Puma does not ban or severely restrict short-term contracts in its supplier factories. This means that workers can lose their jobs from one contract to the next and be left with nothing.
Find out more about how sports brands are tackling the problem of sweatshops in their industry in our Offside! report