In January, 2,800 workers sewing apparel for Adidas and NIKE at the PT Kizone factory in Indonesia were laid off after their factory shut down abruptly. Nearly half a year’s wages were left unpaid, amounting to around $3.3 million in legally owed severance pay.

Sportwear brands Adidas and NIKE had been sourcing from PT Kizone for many years, where workers were paid as little as $0.60 an hour. In July, Nike has announced that, along with its supply chain partners, it would provide the workers with $521,000 dollars, and this combined with a million dollar contribution from one of the other buyers, meant that a fund was set up to distribute roughly half what the workers were owed. Adidas didn’t contribute to the fund. Now, nearly a year after the factory shut down, the workers are still legally owed the remaining $1.8 million in severance, according to Indonesian labor law, and Adidas and NIKE are refusing to have any further part in their responsibilities.

Adidas has refused to pay a single cent toward the $1.8 million PT Kizone workers are still legally owed, and has cut and run from union factories in the past. Despite its net profits rising 14% just this past quarter, it is still refusing to pay workers the severance they’re owed.

NIKE, meanwhile, claims that it has already paid enough by putting forward a portion of the total amount owed, despite the full amount being far from delivered. The bare minimum for social compliance for NIKE is ensuring that the workers making their products are paid in full, and NIKE is still in violation of its own Code of Conduct.

Worker testimony:

December 5th, 2011 Anna