By James Gardiner
Labour Department investigations into illegal sweatshops will be followed up by tax inspectors and welfare officials if any evidence of fraud is discovered.
Labour inspectorate manager Mike Feely says his department will notify any others that may be interested as it sorts through dozens of allegations of illegal working
conditions.
Most relate to backyard clothing factories where workers, mainly Asian women, sew in cramped garages and sheds, some of them for well-known clothing labels.
Politicians yesterday called for greater effort to stamp out Third World working conditions here.
Labour Party industrial spokesman Pete Hodgson said the department's labour inspectorate would be "beefed up by an incoming Labour-led government."
He said replacing the Employment Contracts Act and setting a legal minimum code of wages and conditions and rapid enforcement of them would be the solution.
That statement was attacked by the Employers Federation chief executive, Anne Knowles, who said that while she condemned exploitation, the act had nothing to do with it and a minimum code already existed.
"Sweatshop-type situations are against the law now. We currently have 14 acts of Parliament that govern the employment relationship."
The Greens' national employment and industrial relations spokeswoman, Sue Bradford, said sweatshops had to be stamped out.
"It's been going on for years in Auckland through refugee and migrant labour."
