Adidas boycotts EU ethics hearing By Stephen Castle in Brussels The Independent, 23 November 2000

Two of Europe's best-known multinationals came under attack yesterday for boycotting a parliamentary hearing that was given graphic evidence of their unethical behaviour in developing countries. The Swiss and German industrial giants, Nestle and Adidas, refused to send company representatives to a meeting in the European Parliament in Brussels that heard a litany of accusations against producers of some of Europe's most familiar branded goods.

The hearing was told that workers manufacturing Adidas goods in Indonesia were forced to perform more than 50 hours of overtime a week, while being paid less than the legal hourly limit for the work. Nestle's sales team in Pakistan was accused of offering anything from small inducements to large items of medical equipment to boost sales of formula milk. The use of breastmilk substitutes is discouraged by most aid workers in the Third World because, with the water supply so unreliable, artificially fed infants are about 25 times more likely to contract fatal illnesses.

The refusal of both companies to attend the hearing provoked outrage among Euro MPs. Richard Howitt, rapporteur for ethical business issues, accused the firms of showing "utter contempt for a properly-constituted public hearing". He said: "Not to attend reveals a combination of arrogance and distance which has set their cause back." Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler, a German green MEP, also attacked the behaviour of the two firms as "unacceptable". The companies did agree to send third-party representatives who had done audits of their activities. But, in the case of Adidas, the individual had worked in India and had no knowledge of conditions in Indonesia, the main focus of yesterday's hearing. The development committee of the European Parliament is pressing for binding rules to take the place of codes of conduct, which, they argue, can be broken with impunity. Despite its Swiss ownership, Nestle is an object of the parliament's scrutiny because it exports some of its produce from the Netherlands. Sunil Sunha, director of Emerging Market Economics, which audited Nestle's marketing practices in Pakistan, said the detected breaches of the firm's code of conduct - which outlaws the offering of inducements - ere "relatively minor" ones.

But Tracey Wagner-Rizvi, representing the Network for Consumer Protection in Pakistan, launched a scathing attack on Nestle, arguing that large numbers of women were misled into using formula milk. "In a country like Pakistan, where half the population does not have access to clean water, breastfeeding can make the difference between life and death," she said. Mrs Wagner-Rizvi accused the company of delaying moves to introduce legislation and of taking part in a "whitewash". Adidas was accused of unethical conduct by Ingeborg Wick, an academic and member of the European Clean Clothes Campaign, who interviewed workers in a factory near Cakung, east of Jakarta, in September. She said she was "shocked" by the amount of forced overtime they did for Adidas.