Subaru says suppliers have been told to treat workers fairly

Reuters

Published Aug 02, 2015 02:46PM ET

Updated Aug 02, 2015 03:16PM ET

Subaru says suppliers have been told to treat workers fairly

(Reuters) - Fuji Heavy Industries (T:7270), the parent company of automaker Subaru, has told its network of suppliers that it expects them to treat workers fairly and to uphold "human rights and international standards of behavior."

"Fuji Heavy Industries does not condone the exploitation of any class of worker, either in its own operations or within its supply chain," the company said in a statement released on Friday by its U.S. marketing and sales affiliate, Subaru of America.

"Our supply chain network has been made aware of our policy and expectations," it said.

The Subaru statement came in response to a Reuters investigation of factory conditions at Subaru and its suppliers in Japan published last week. The report found widespread employment of asylum seekers and other cheap foreign laborers from Africa and Asia.

Those workers complained of working conditions that included lower wages than Japanese laborers doing equivalent work, a lack of safeguards and abuses at the hands of labor brokers who charge up to a third of their wages to place them in Subaru-related jobs, Reuters found.