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Clothing store Zara came under fire after its customers found notes written by factory workers inside its products.
Shoppers in Istanbul, Turkey were bewildered when they read the notes saying that Zara has not paid the workers for producing the garments. The notes were allegedly slipped into the clothes by workers employed by Bravo Tekstil, a local manufacturing company that made clothes for Zara. Since its sudden shutdown in July 2016, the workers have not received their three-month salary and separation pay because their employer ran away.
Meanwhile, Zara’s parent company, Inditex, said that it is already working to resolve the issue. The company is organizing a $246,000 hardship fund, a kind of financial support in case of a crisis, to cover the Turkish workers’ unpaid salary, unused vacation leaves, and separation pay. Furthermore, Inditex pledged to be stricter in supervising its manufacturing facilities to prevent such incidents from happening again.
This is not the only issue that Zara is currently facing. Recently, the brand was also suspected of buying materials from factories in Asia that produce harmful chemicals. According to the investigation, these factories create clothes out of environment-friendly materials, but their procedure is toxic to the surroundings. In fact, the factories have allegedly contaminated waters in lakes and rivers.
In China, many plants and animals died because of the toxic water. Meanwhile, in India, it is believed that the water caused an increased risk of birth defects and cancer in the community.