Valentino Bags in receivership for failure to control caporalato

The Prevention Measures Section of the Court of Milan ordered the judicial administration of Valentino Bags Lab srl, a company producing bags and travel accessories of the parent company Valentino spa, for an alleged failure to control the exploitation of labour, and therefore forced labour, in some Chinese factories in the production subcontracting chain. The investigations, conducted by the Carabinieri's Labour Inspectorate Unit, were coordinated by Prosecutor Paolo Storari.

According to the charges, the company - controlled by Valentino Spa - did not 'put in place appropriate measures to verify the real working conditions' and the 'technical capacities of the contracting companies, so as to culpably facilitate individuals with substantial evidence of the crime of 'caporalato'.

The decree ordering the receivership speaks of 'the use and exploitation of irregular and clandestine labour; the transit of irregular items from one factory to another; the presence, in all cases examined, of the same principal of subcontracted production'.

The mechanism brought to light by the investigators is the complete outsourcing of production processes: the contracting company fictitiously has a real production capacity, but in fact only has the 'sampling of the material'. In this way, costs are further reduced 'thanks to the use of irregular and clandestine labour'.

The workshops used are run by Chinese recruiting compatriots caught in the grip of the underground, who receive instructions on production directly from the contracting company.