Ironically, on “World Day for Decent Work”, German supermarket chain ALDI threatens critics with legal action for addressing the discounter's shortcomings on complying with workers' rights. By distributing a parody of the discounter's leaflets, the Christliche Initiative Romero (CIR), member of the German Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) highlighted the dark side of ALDI's products.

ALDI was not amused by this initiative to inform consumers and ordered an injunction against the CIR. The parody leaflet shows regular ALDI offers of garment and shoes, adding information about, among others, labour rights violations that were revealed in ALDI supplying factories in Asia. The CCC has been criticising ALDI earlier for failing to address appalling working conditions throughout their supply chain, such as forced unpaid overtime, starvation wages, and safety and health issues.

However, so far the discounter has not shown any sign of change or even willingness for dialogue. Now, instead of taking the long overdue decisive action to address this alarming circumstances, ALDI attempts to muzzle its critics by threatening them with legal action.

We ask for real action and demand from ALDI to:

• Immediately refrain from taking any legal measures against the CIR;

• Implement the code of conduct developed by the CCC throughout all of its supply chain, and allow for indepedent verification of the implementation;

• Change its purchasing practices so that its suppliers are able to adhere to labour standards;

• Implement transparency: name its suppliers in the countries of production and report regularly about working conditions in consumer countries;

• Ensure the compliance with labour standards throughout the supply chain.

To support these demands, submit a protest e-mail to ALDI Nord here

The parody of the ALDI leaflet can be found here