Nike to Resume Football Production in Pakistan
Pakistan Times Business & Commerce Desk

LONDON (UK): Nike, the official supplier of footballs to the English Premier League, is to resume production of hand-stitched leather balls in Pakistan six months after stopping amid concerns over child labor, reports "Financial Times".

According to the daily, the company has signed a contract with Silver Star, a leather processor in Sialkot. The move follows a tendering process that Nike says was designed to promote a broader modernization of the sector, which is centred on the city.

The daily says the case has highlighted the challenges facing brands in the clothing and footwear industry over how to respond to frequent breaches of codes on working conditions in supply chains.

Nike's decision in November to end production at Saga, its former supplier in Sialkot, followed what Alan Marks, a company spokesman, said was "primarily a fundamental breach of trust" in its management over failures to remedy problems with labor conditions.

Nike was the factory's main client and many of the estimated 3,000 workers there have lost their jobs. Saga was producing 6m of the 40m leather footballs produced in Pakistan annually.

Unlike the global clothing business, where contracts can be moved relatively rapidly between factories and companies, the quality and scale of the leather industry in Sialkot is unique, leaving Nike with a significant shortfall in supply.

The city's leather-stitching industry is largely informal and household-based. This has combined with a lack of organized local labour groups and efforts to eliminate child labour through monitoring. Persistent child-labour problems were reported last year.

The contract with Silver Star requires the new supplier to use only registered full-time employees paid hourly wages to work on its premises, rather than piece work. It also stipulates that its workers must be able to form or join trade unions.

However, the initial contract is for one-fifth of the volume of balls originally produced for Nike by Saga, although Nike says it will buy more as Silver Star's capacity develops.

Nike says the use of hand-stitched balls is declining· creating future problems for Sialkot unless the industry modernizes.●