Playfair 2012 wants the rights of workers making sportswear and Olympic goods to be respected for London 2012, Brazil 2016 and all future Olympics to come.
For this to happen, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as the main Olympic body, must take responsibility for the conditions in which these products are made. This means finding a long-term solution that will end the abuse and exploitation of workers in these supply chains and deliver Decent Work.
Playfair 2012 is part of the international Playfair 2008 campaign. Our campaign demands to the IOC include:
- Promote the need to end the exploitation and abuse involved in the sportswear and athletic footwear industries, in public.
- Respect for workers’ rights should be an important part of The Olympic Charter and Code of Ethics.
- Contracts with companies that provide goods with the Olympic logo, state that internationally recognised labour standards must be met.
“I work from early in the morning until 2am the next day. This happens not just once, but 2 or 3 times a month. I was so exhausted, but I was still required to go to work as usual the next day.”
(13 year-old girl working at Lekit Stationery Stationery c. Ltd, a Taiwanese company based in southern China. Playfair, 2008)
Campaign progress
After a gap of two years in talks between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the international Play Fair campaign, Playfair 2012 was successful in securing a meeting with the IOC on 5 April 2011 when the Committee was in London for a board meeting. Brendan Barber (General Secretary, TUC); Sam Gurney (Policy Officer , TUC); Anna McMullen (Campaign Coordinator, Labour Behind the Label); and Kristin Blom (Campaigns Officer, ITUC) met with Christophe De Kepper (Chief of Staff, IOC); and Mark Adams (Communications Director, IOC). During the meeting, campaign representatives urged the IOC to ensure that all workplaces in Olympic and sportswear supply chains are free from poverty wages, insecure employment and excessive hours, and that workers are allowed to join/form unions.
Letters calling for fair treatment for workers producing Olympic merchandise, signed by International Trade Union Confederation affiliates around the world, were handed over at the meeting.
This positive step made a start at rekindling a working relationship between the IOC and the Play Fair campaign.
In more depth: Olympics and workers’ rights: the story so far (2008)
