The ILRF report highlights that:

• More than half of the 218 surveyed workers in Pakistan reported that they did not make the legal minimum wage per month.
• In one Pakistani manufacturer, ILRF researchers found that all interviewed stitching center or home-based workers were employed as temporary workers therefore preventing them from having access to affordable healthcare.
• In the same Pakistani manufacturer’s supply chain, female home-based workers face discrimination based on their gender. They were paid the least and faced the possibility of losing their jobs permanently due to pregnancy.
• In one Chinese factory, workers were found to work up to 21 hours a day during high seasons without a day off in an entire month.
• Indian stitching centers were described as ‘pathetic’. Proper drinking water or medical care facilities, and even toilets are often absent.

The ILRF is calling on the soccer ball industry to take immediate action to address the issues of extremely low wages and proliferation of temporary workers in order to improve conditions for the very workers that produce the ball at the center of the World Cup 2010 games.  You can send an email to FIFA to request they become a leader in the soccer ball industry.  FIFA needs to push for the entire industry works together so that workers no longer have to endure poverty wages and job insecurity.

The report is available at: http://www.laborrights.org/stop-child-forced-labor/foulball-campaign/resources/12331