Ikea regrets use of forced labour in contracts with former East Germany
17 Nov 2012
Swedish furniture giant Ikea expressed regret over the use of forced prison labour by some of its suppliers in communist East Germany over two decades ago. An independent report it released said East German prisoners, many of them political dissidents, were involved in the manufacture of goods that Ikea bought 25 to 30 years back.
Although Ikea managers had been aware of possibility of prisoners being used in the manufacture of its products and took some measures to prevent this, they were not sufficient, according to the report.
Jeanette Skjelmose, an Ikea manager, said the company deeply regretted that this could happen, adding, however, that at the time it did not have the well-developed control system that it now had and, clearly, it did too little to prevent such production methods.
The firm commissioned auditors Ernst & Young to probe allegations aired by a Swedish television documentary in June, which had been raised by a human rights group in 1982.
According to Rainer Wagner, chairman of the victims' group UOKG, Ikea was only one among many companies that benefited from the use of forced prison labour in East Germany from the 1960s to 1980s.
He told the Associated Press in an interview earlier this week that Ikea was only the tip of the iceberg.
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