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Gusti Leather actively fights against child labour

India is one of the many countries in the world where it is extremely difficult to combat child labor.

Child labour is any work performed by a child who is either younger than 15 years or has not yet reached the local minimum age for work or compulsory schooling.

In India, many children under 15 years work to earn additional income to support their families.

We take the issue of child labour seriously and do not tolerate it with our producers.

  • What are our first steps against child labor?

    We are subject to the internationally recognized SA8000 standard, which aims to improve working conditions worldwide. This standard is based on conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations (UN).

    No child under the age of 15 is employed in our tanneries. We have taken measures to actively combat child labour in our production facilities.

    Each of our manufacturers must sign an agreement stating that no children are employed in their company. This agreement applies to all phases of the production process. If we find that the agreement has been violated in any way, we will terminate any further cooperation with these manufacturers for a period of at least two months from the time of our knowledge and charge them a fine of 3000 €.

    Under Indian law, children between the ages of 14 and 15 may be employed - but only under very specific conditions.

    If one of our producers wishes to employ a child between the ages of 14 and 15, they must submit the child's ID card to the Indian government without being asked. Additionally, they must pay a fee of 400 € per child per year. This fee doubles to 800 € per child per year if the producer fails to submit the child's details to the government and/or does not pay the fee of 400 € per child per year.

    If we find that a child under the age of 14 has been employed by one of our producers, Gusti will charge the respective producer a fine of 3000 € and initially suspend production with them for 2 months. If after this period it is found that the producer employs a child under the age of 14 again, the details of the violation will be made public on-site, and we will terminate our contract with this manufacturer indefinitely.

    Our producers are strictly prohibited from exposing children or young workers to situations that pose a risk to their physical or mental health and development. This applies both inside and outside the workplace.

  • How can we verify that our agreement with our producers is being followed?

    We have various measures to check and ensure the health and safety of our employees' workplaces and that the child labour agreement is being followed.

    We have seven employees on-site who conduct unannounced visits to our producers at least once a month. This helps us experience the working conditions our producers create as realistically as possible. In our experience, contracts and agreements alone are sometimes not enough to maintain our standards. Since the issue of child labour is very important to us, the additional effort that personal visits entail is worth it to us. Only in this way can we fulfill our high ethical standards for ourselves.

    For the future, we plan to inspect all areas of the production facilities during our visits, as this is unfortunately not yet fully possible. We are constantly working to improve in order to provide our employees with a safe working environment.

How can we verify that our agreement with our producers is being followed?

Health and safety of our employees in the tanneries

To ensure that our tanneries meet Gusti's high standards for a safe working environment, we provide our producers with specific instructions, procedures, and supervision. This guarantees us that our employees always work safely and responsibly.

  • What do we do for the safety and health of our employees in the tanneries?

    Protective clothing is a must.

    Every one of our employees who comes into contact with wet leather as part of their duties must wear protective clothing, which means protective boots and gloves.

    This requirement is of the highest priority for us because we want to avoid health impairments of our employees due to excessive contact with water and chemicals. It is not beneficial for skin health to be constantly exposed to wet leather without protection.

    To assist our producers in meeting our requirement, Gusti covers 50% of the costs for any safety clothing. This way, we contribute to ensuring that our employees receive high-quality and safe protection.

    To ensure that our safety standards are not forgotten, we regularly send reminders to our producers through our official communication channels. Although we trust that our producers independently think of them and comply with the standards, caution is always better than hindsight.

    Our employees are important to us, which is why we want to protect their health.

  • How do we check if our safety standards are being met?

    To ensure that all employees are protected at work, our Quality Control (QC) team conducts several unannounced visits monthly. During these visits, workplaces and other impressions of the work environment are recorded via video and photo. This way, we can hold the respective producer accountable if they have not adequately protected their employees.

    Additionally, QC ensures that especially old safety gloves are regularly replaced with new ones. After a defined number of visits, a small hole is poked in used gloves. This hole is, of course, placed so that it does not impair the protective function of the gloves. When old gloves receive two holes, they are replaced with new ones.

    This procedure ensures that employees in the tanneries always have functional protective clothing.

    Thus, we hope to create safe working conditions. Unfortunately, we cannot be on-site permanently to check the situation in every production facility. Therefore, we trust that our producers always act responsibly and in the best interest of all employees.

  • What happens if employees do not wear protective clothing?

    If we notice during a visit that someone is working with wet leather without using protective clothing, we impose fines.

    For a first-time violation of our protective clothing requirements for employees, the producer must pay a fine of 25 € per person without protective clothing. For a second violation, the fine increases to 50 € per person, for the third to 75 € per person, and so on. This may not seem like a lot of money at first, but it can quickly add up.

    If such violations occur more frequently, we also increase the number of unannounced visits.