Latest news with #United Kingdom
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Amazon's Third-Party Marketplace Stoking Worker Exploitation?
Despite Amazon's claims that providing 'safe, healthy and fair' working conditions is a prerequisite for any entity it conducts business with, deficiencies in the Everything Store's due diligence requirements for the half a million 'hidden' sellers that make up its third-party marketplace have created blind spots where worker exploitation can thrive, according to a blistering new report. This was a problem in 2019, when a Wall Street Journal exposé found sweaters, clerical robes, fishnet body stockings and other items made in Bangladeshi factories that were blacklisted after the Rana Plaza collapse for their unwillingness to fix safety problems such as missing sprinklers, crumbling foundations or faulty wiring. It remains a problem six years on, Labour Behind the Label said, because Amazon still doesn't apply the same oversight rules to third-party sellers as it does to the manufacturers of goods sold under its own imprimatur. More from Sourcing Journal Trump's Trade War Could Kill Lesotho's Garment Industry Loro Piana Hit With Judicial Administration for 'Fueling' Worker Exploitation in Italy Hundreds of Cambodia's Garment Factories Unsure About Operations Beyond 3 Months One pandemic and a massive uptick in online spending later, the problem is arguably worse for a company that has also since become a force to be reckoned with in apparel and footwear sales, said Anna Bryher, policy lead at the Bristol-based workers' rights nonprofit. In her native United Kingdom, online shopping now accounts for nearly half of all clothing, with platforms like Amazon gobbling up the bulk of purchases. But while some British e-tailers are starting to roll out more rigorous accountability and transparency measures, the industry by and large lacks 'coherent standards,' she said. Nowhere was this made more apparent than when Labour Behind the Label tried to find out more information about where Amazon seller products sold in Britain are made. It tried sussing out suppliers in Turkey. It tried buying data. It tried looking at lists of services and shipping manifests. Eventually, the organization was able to scrape addresses from U.K. sellers and match them with deliveries from Pakistan. It ended up doing field research into the conditions behind three products: a girl's crop top emblazoned with the hashtag #SELFIE, a denim maxi skirt and a pack of three ladies' nightdresses in ditsy prints. Speaking to workers in Faisalabad and Karachi, Labour Behind the Label found chilling commonalities: illegally low wages, forced overtime, precarious piece-rate contracts without social security benefits, rampant harassment from managers and audits that were described as a 'sham.' 'With my current insufficient earnings, we can only afford the cheapest possible food instead of having nutritious meals, including no milk, meat, fruits, salad, etc. We avoid socializing and joining wedding events even in the family because we cannot afford clothing for the purpose,' said Abdul, who supports a family of seven on 32,000 Pakistani rupees ($112) a month, well below the 38,280 rupees ($134) he's entitled to receive by law. 'Consumers should be aware of our living state. They should know what conditions the workers live in who prepare these fantastic products for others. We cannot afford to buy the products we make.' Bryher said that Labour Behind the Label focused on small to medium-sized suppliers because it was clear that their limited resources and informal capacity made them less able to properly engage in compliance activities, rendering them more susceptible to falling between the cracks. Many SMEs also employ fewer than 50 workers, placing them outside the domain of labor laws such as the Industrial Relations Act and allowing them to escape external oversight. At the same time, she said, Amazon as a 'facilitator' of mass-market access undergirded by such factories has a duty to ensure visibility of risk in these supply chains—and, just as importantly, ensure that remedy is available to workers whose rights have been violated. 'The UN guiding principles on business and human rights say that whether you are causing or contributing or are linked to businesses that are impacting negatively on human rights, you have a duty of diligence, so it's not even just our opinion,' she said. 'Amazon does have a proportionate duty towards ensuring that harm is not impacted in the sales that it profits from.' Amazon said that it requires all products offered in its stores to comply with its supply chain standards for labor rights, health and safety, and that it will take decisive action if it can confirm Labor Behind the Label's allegations, up to and including withholding funds, terminating accounts and making law enforcement referrals. 'We take these allegations incredibly seriously and are currently investigating these claims,' a spokesperson said. 'Selling partners who list products in our stores must comply with our supply chain standards, even when they exceed the requirements of applicable law.' While Amazon is a substantial player—86 percent of Britons of shop on the platform, with 70 percent partaking at least once a month and 17 percent weekly, according to freight-forwarding firm Frisbi—it's by no means the only one, Bryher said. Shein hosts 100,000 sellers on its U.K. website, Asos 850, Next, 760 and John Lewis 540. Most brandish the same kind of supplier code of conduct, with varying degrees of risk assessment. Asos stands out, Labour Behind the Label said, because it requires partner brands to submit a Tier 1 factory list as part of the onboarding process. The e-tailer also asks that partner brands have an ethical policy (plus a contact at the company it can call on), map their supply chain, conduct regular audits, provide workers with a grievance mechanism and demonstrate how they take action to tackle labor violations. 'We hope to continue discussing with other e-tailers about what is an industry standard? What's the right thing to be done by all e-tailers, with respect to third-party brands? What's the right remedy mechanism that they could be offering collectively?' Bryher said. 'There are some best practices out there, as Asos shows. It's become normal for big brands to be publishing their supply chains and that data has contributed significantly to how unions and worker rights groups are able to then contact brands if a violation is found. And so we hope that the same would happen for third-party brands.' The issues that fashion purveyors were 'so worried about'—a leading one was that proprietary information might be stolen by competitors—haven't materialized, she said, before adding, 'Everybody already knows that they share factories anyway, so why does it matter?' Labour Behind the Label is also calling for what it describes as an 'urgent' transformation in policy and practice to create marketplaces that protect worker rights and 'stop masking' bad behavior. Post-Brexit Britain is wrestling with whether its Modern Slavery Act is still fit for purpose; Bryher calls it 'woefully inadequate' and former Asos chief Nick Beighton has previously called for its toughening up. The European Union's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, or CSDDD, would have created legal obligations for retailers to flag and address social and environmental malfeasance in their supply chains, but much of this is now up in the air because of a simplification bill that many of its critics say amounts to deregulation. 'It would rule out Amazon's relationship with any businesses beyond the ones that it has a direct contractual understanding with,' Bryher said of the omnibus. 'The limiting of the scope will rule out most of Amazon's responsibility, and it's possible that it is not a happy accident for Amazon, but perhaps by design also.' The Jeff Bezos-founded company's lobbying efforts with EU lawmakers, she said, have noticeably ratcheted up in 2024 and 2025, coinciding with the 'path of the omnibus.' In 2022, there were eight declared lobbyists; by the first quarter of this year, 49. Bryher is also concerned by Amazon's announcement earlier this month that its hosted cloud division will be accelerating its AI integration with Debenhams Group, owner of Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing and Karen Millen, to allow for a speedier onboarding of third-party sellers, among other things. She worries that its current due diligence process could also be replicated through this tech. 'Then even more so is the responsibility of Amazon to set it up correctly so that transparency is required of suppliers and that appropriate policies, capacity and remedy mechanisms are in place,' she said. 'It's not necessarily about Amazon digging into every supply chain and doing the audits itself, it's about requiring an appropriate level of information back from the sellers to demonstrate they have some understanding of the bare minimum to protect workers in the production of their products.' Those workers include people like Hussain Ismail, who supports five children on the 2.5 rupees (less than 9 cents) that he makes per piece of clothing. It's only by working 10-hour days that he can cobble together 35,700 rupees ($125) at the end of each month. 'The wages are not enough; we end up getting in debt,' he said. 'Grocery and utility bills are a challenge for us. What can we say to consumers? We do not have access to them. The piece rate is being decreased day by day. Workers are considered the backbone of the economy, but the capitalists are breaking that bone.' Solve the daily Crossword
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Is the international community finally speaking up about Israel?
International public opinion continues to turn against Israel for its war on Gaza, with more governments slowly beginning to reflect those voices and increase their own condemnation of the country. In the last few weeks, Israeli government ministers have been sanctioned by several Western countries, with the United Kingdom, France and Canada issuing a joint statement condemning the 'intolerable' level of 'human suffering' in Gaza. Earlier this week, a number of countries from the Global South, 'The Hague Group', collectively agreed on a number of measures that they say will 'restrain Israel's assault on the Occupied Palestinian Territories'. Across the world, and in increasing numbers, the public, politicians and, following an Israeli strike on a Catholic church in Gaza, religious leaders are speaking out against Israel's killings in Gaza. So, are world powers getting any closer to putting enough pressure on Israel for it to stop? Here's what we know. According to its website, the Hague Group is a global bloc of states committed to 'coordinated legal and diplomatic measures' in defence of international law and solidarity with the people of Palestine. Made up of eight nations; South Africa, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia and Senegal, the group has set itself the mission of upholding international law, and safeguarding the principles set out in the Charter of the United Nations, principally 'the responsibility of all nations to uphold the inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination, that it enshrines for all peoples'. Earlier this week, the Hague Group hosted a meeting of some 30 nations, including China, Spain and Qatar, in the Colombian capital of Bogota. Also attending the meeting was UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who characterised the meeting as 'the most significant political development in the past 20 months'. Albanese was recently sanctioned by the United States for her criticism of its ally, Israel. At the end of the two-day meeting, 12 of the countries in attendance agreed to six measures to limit Israel's actions in Gaza. Included in those measures were blocks on supplying arms to Israel, a ban on ships transporting weapons and a review of public contracts for any possible links to companies benefiting from Israel's occupation of Palestine. More and more. On Wednesday, Slovenia barred far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and ultranationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering its territory after the wider European Union failed to agree on measures to address charges of widespread human rights abuses against Israel. Slovenia's ban on the two government ministers builds upon earlier sanctions imposed upon Smotrich and Ben-Gvir in June by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and Norway over their 'incitement to violence'. The two men have been among the most vocal Israeli ministers in rejecting any compromise in negotiations with Palestinians, and pushing for the Jewish settlement of Gaza, as well as the increased building of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. In May, the UK, France, and Canada issued a joint statement describing Israel's escalation of its campaign against Gaza as 'wholly disproportionate' and promising 'concrete actions' against Israel if it did not halt its offensive. Later that month, the UK followed through on its warning, announcing sanctions on a handful of settler organisations and announcing a 'pause' in free trade negotiations with Israel. Also in May, Turkiye announced that it would block all trade with Israel until the humanitarian situation in Gaza was resolved. South Africa first launched a case for genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice in late December 2023, and has since been supported by other countries, including Colombia, Chile, Spain, Ireland, and Turkiye. In January of 2024, the ICJ issued its provisional ruling, finding what it termed a 'plausible' case for genocide and instructing Israel to undertake emergency measures, including the provision of the aid that its government has effectively blocked since March of this year. Israel's bombing on Thursday of the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, killing three people, drew a rare rebuke from Israel's most stalwart ally, the United States. Following what was reported to be an 'angry' phone call from US President Trump after the bombing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement expressing its 'deep regret' over the attack. To date, Israel has killed more than 58,000 people in Gaza, the majority women and children. Mass public protests against Israel's war on Gaza have continued around the world throughout its duration. And there are clear signs of growing anger over the brutality of the war and the toll it is taking on Palestinians in Gaza. In Western Europe, a survey carried out by the polling company YouGov in June found that net favourability towards Israel had reached its lowest ebb since tracking began. A similar poll produced by CNN this week found similar results among the American public, with only 23 percent of respondents agreeing Israel's actions in Gaza were fully justified, down from 50 percent in October 2023. Public anger has also found voice at high-profile public events, including music festivals such as Germany's Fusion Festival, Poland's Open'er Festival and the UK's Glastonbury festival, where both artists and their supporters used their platforms to denounce the war on Gaza. Protests against the war remain small but are growing, with organisations, such as Standing Together, bringing together Israeli and Palestinian activists to protest the war. There has also been a growing number of reservists refusing to show up for duty. In April, the Israeli magazine +972 reported that more than 100,000 reservists had refused to show up for duty, with open letters from within the military protesting the war growing in number since. Netanyahu's hard-right coalition has been pursuing its war on Gaza despite its domestic and international unpopularity for some time. The government's most recent proposal, that all of Gaza's population be confined into what it calls a 'humanitarian city', but has been likened to a concentration camp and has been taken by many of its critics as evidence that it no longer cares about either international law or global opinion. Internationally, despite its recent criticism of Israel for its bombing of Gaza's one Catholic church, US support for Israel remains resolute. For many in Israel, the continued support of the US, and President Donald Trump in particular, remains the one diplomatic absolute they can rely upon to weather whatever diplomatic storms their actions in Gaza may provoke. In addition to that support, which includes diplomatic guarantees through the use of the US veto in the United Nations Security Council and military support via its extensive arsenal, is the US use of sanctions against Israel's critics, such as the International Criminal Court, whose members were sanctioned in June after it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on war crimes charges. That means, in the short term, Israel ultimately feels protected as long as it has US support. But as it becomes more of an international pariah, economic and diplomatic isolation may become more difficult to handle.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Will Tiger Woods play in the British Open? Current status of the legendary PGA golfer
The PGA Tour continues this week with the fourth and final major championship of the year, the British Open on July 17-20. One of the most famous golfers of all time, Tiger Woods, is still competing at the age of 49 but will not be competing this weekend. Woods announced he underwent surgery to repair his left Achilles after rupturing it while training at home. A recovery time for an Achilles rupture tends to be between 6-12 months. Woods will be out for the foreseeable future and his return is undetermined. The 2-time Fed Ex Cup Champion last participated in the British Open in 2024. He was cut after round 2 finishing 14 over par. He has not come back to the PGA Tour scene since. PGA TOIUR MONEY LIST: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy retain grips on top two spots Tiger Woods major history Woods' career matches or even surpasses most golfers in history. He has 82 PGA Tour wins in his 29-year career. He began in 1996 and won his first major, the Masters, in 1997 at the age of 21. He became the youngest ever to win a major and three years later became the youngest to complete a grand slam, winning all four major tournaments. His last win was in 2019 in the ZOZO Championship and the Masters. Tiger Woods British Open wins Woods has won many majors in his career and the British Open is one major he has won multiple times. His first British Open was the major that helped him complete the golf grand slam. 2000: Set a record 19-under-par score and winning by eight strokes. 2005: Woods claimed victory by five strokes. 2006: He defeated runner-up Chris DiMarco by two strokes. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Tiger Woods: British Open availability, current status after injury
The Independent
2 days ago
- The Independent
Four face 2027 trial over alleged Palestine Action aircraft damage
Four people accused of plotting to damage two Voyager aircraft at RAF Brize Norton in a demonstration allegedly carried out by members of Palestine Action face trial in 2027. About £7 million worth of damage was caused to the aircraft at the airbase in Oxfordshire on June 20 in an incident alleged to have a 'terrorist connection', the Old Bailey heard. Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, Jony Cink, 24, Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 36, and Lewis Chiaramello, 22, are charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place 'knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom', and conspiracy to commit criminal damage. It has previously been alleged the defendants had been heavily involved in Palestine Action at the time. On the same day they were charged, MPs backed the Government's move to ban the direct action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. On Friday, the defendants appeared at the Old Bailey for a hearing to set a timetable for the case amid heightened security outside the central London court. The two female defendants appeared by video-link from Bronzefield jail with the two male defendants in the dock in court. Watched by members of the public in a packed public gallery, the defendants spoke only to confirm their identities. Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay KC said the case related to 'criminal damage to two aircraft at RAF Brize Norton in the early hours of June 20 which caused extensive damage to the aircraft'. He said the case was being heard in the terrorism list before Mrs Justice Cheema- Grubb, 'the prosecution submission being this case has a terrorist connection'. Mr Polnay said a provisional trial fixture of six to eight weeks had been identified from January 18 2027. He accepted that was 'obviously a considerable distance away' and there was uncertainty at this stage how long any trial would take. He added the length of the trial would depend on whether the defendants accepted being involved in the 'physical acts undoubtedly taken'. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the 2027 trial date meant an 'inordinately long time' for the four young people to wait in custody. She said: 'The sooner the real issues in this case are identified the better for everyone, particularly in fixing the trial date.' The senior judge confirmed the 2027 trial date at the Old Bailey but said she would review it at a plea hearing on January 16 next year. Gardiner-Gibson, Jony Cink, both of no fixed address, Jeronymides-Norie, of Barnet, north London, and Chiaramello, of Brent, north London, were remanded into custody.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Direct trains from UK to historical European city with €4 beers will be running soon
The United Kingdom and Germany have signed a landmark treaty that will pave the way for a direct rail link between London and Berlin. Dubbed The Kensington Treaty, the agreement is said to 'fundamentally change how millions of people travel', with hopes the rail link will be up and running by the early 2030s. The agreement marks a significant shift in relations between the two nations, and was sealed during German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's first official visit to the UK on 17 July. The signing ceremony took place at the Victoria and Albert Museum in Kensington, alongside Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. One of the deal's key elements, as outlined in the UK governments Plan for Change, is the commitment to establish a long-distance, direct passenger rail service between the two capitals, according to The Times. It would also provide a direct link between London and other major German cities, such as Frankfurt. A joint UK-Germany transport taskforce will now assess the infrastructure, border and security needs required to establish the route. The taskforce will also look into commercial and technical requirements, such as safety standards and the potential to collaborate with rail operators to make direct services a reality. The United Kingdom and Germany have signed a landmark treaty that will pave the way for a direct rail link between London and Berlin (Pictured: Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on 17 July) Dubbed The Kensington Treaty, the agreement is said to 'fundamentally change how millions of people travel,' with hopes the rail link will be up and running by the early 2030s (Pictured: a train of the regional express line RE 1 to Eisenhüttenstadt) Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, said: 'We're pioneering a new era of European rail connectivity and are determined to put Britain at the heart of a better-connected continent. 'The Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie - in just a matter of years, rail passengers in the UK could be able to visit these iconic sights direct from the comfort of a train, thanks to a direct connection linking London and Berlin. 'This landmark agreement – part of a new treaty the Prime Minister will sign with Chancellor Merz today - has the potential to fundamentally change how millions of people travel between our two countries, offering a faster, more convenient and significantly greener alternative to flying.' Eurostar and other rail operators initially put expansion plans in serving on hold following the UK's departure from the EU due to the need to address logistical and operational challenges related to border controls and new regulations. While expansion was initially delayed, Eurostar has since announced plans to launch direct services to Frankfurt and Geneva in the early 2030s, and is also working on a direct route to Berlin. Meanwhile, passengers will have more choice of international train services through the Channel Tunnel, the rail regulator said - threatening Eurostar's 31-year monopoly. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) revealed it will allocate spare capacity at Eurostar's Temple Mills maintenance depot in Leyton, East London, to either one new operator or Eurostar itself, which has plans to grow. Several companies are developing plans to run passenger trains through the tunnel - rivalling Eurostar, which has held a monopoly since the infrastructure opened in 1994. The agreement marks a significant shift in relations between the two nations, and was sealed during German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's first official visit to the UK on 17 July The signing ceremony took place at the Victoria and Albert Museum in Kensington, alongside Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer Organisations developing proposals for rival services include billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group; Italy's state-owned railway company FS Italiane Group; and Gemini Trains, which is chaired by Labour peer Lord Berkeley. Access to depot space for maintaining and storing trains is a critical requirement for new operators or Eurostar to boost services. It is the only UK site able to support trains that can be used in the Channel Tunnel and on tracks in continental Europe. However, the ORR also said it believes 'there is room for at most one new operator, or for Eurostar to grow' - meaning not all the rival services are likely to succeed. The regulator has urged applicants to submit detailed plans on how to allocate capacity. From London St Pancras, Eurostar currently serves Paris, Lille, Brussels, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, as well as running seasonal ski trains to the French Alps.
