Giorgio Armani Operations SPA put into administration

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 5 - The court of Milan's preventative measures section on Friday put Giorgio Armani Operations SPA, the fashion group's subsidiary dealing with the design and production of clothes and accessories, into judicial administration for one year.
    The move is linked to a criminal probe by prosecutors Paolo Storari and Luisa Baima Bollone and the Carabinieri police's labour inspectorate into alleged worker exploitation.
    The allegedly exploitation regards work subcontracted out and carried out at allegedly illegal plants using Chinese citizens employed off the books.
    Investigators said Giorgio Armani Operations SPA had been "incapable of preventing and curbing phenomena of labor exploitation within the production cycle, having not implemented suitable measures to verify the real working conditions or the technical capabilities of the contracting companies," thus facilitating "the crime of gangmastering".
    They said this system had made it possible to lower production costs, not paying direct taxes, insurance and social-security contributions, not respecting workplace health-and-safety regulations, and not complying with the obligations of the sector's national collective contract for pay, work hours, breaks and paid holidays.
    The order putting the company into administration said workers were made to work at an "exhausting" pace for over 14 hours a day, paid as little as two-three euros an hour and put up in "degrading accommodation conditions".
    The Armani Group said Friday that it had "always had control and prevention measures in place to minimize abuses in the supply chain.
    "GA Operations will cooperate with the utmost transparency with the competent authorities to clarify its position on the matter" a statement said. (ANSA).