IKEA apologizes for using forced labor to make furniture
| Berlin
IKEA聽apologised on Friday for using the forced labour of political prisoners in communist East聽Germany聽to make some of its furniture during the 1980s.
Victims of the German Democratic Republic's (GDR) Stasi secret police watched as a senior executive of the Swedish giant acknowledged for the first time that it had failed to act when rumours of prison labour emerged.
"Despite聽IKEA's attempts in the 1980s to prevent the use of political prisoners in making its products in the GDR, political prisoners were used. As the representative of聽IKEA聽in聽Germany, I offer my deepest regrets to the victims," said聽Peter Betzel, the company's country manager.
Embarrassed by media reports聽IKEA, the world's largest furniture retailer, launched an internal investigation a year ago into whether it had used forced labour in the GDR until the fall of the聽Berlin聽Wall in 1989.
It handed the investigation to auditors聽Ernst & Young聽in May to ensure greater objectivity.
The presentation of the report took place a few metres from聽Checkpoint Charlie, one of the landmarks of the division of聽Berlin聽during the Cold War, where former Stasi prisoners said they hoped the study would lead to financial compensation.
"It's not about getting compensation just from聽IKEA聽but from all the companies who played a role in this," said 62-year-old聽Rainer Wagner.聽IKEA聽did not touch on the issue of compensation although it said it would consider funding further research into the whole issue of forced labour.
Wagner was jailed after attempting to flee the GDR in 1966 and was forced to work in a factory producing gas meters. Some of the firms involved were privatised after reunification, he said.
CHEAP LABOUR
Other former prisoners told of being thrown into isolation cells and fed on punishment rations for failing to reach productivity targets at factories working for Western companies, including聽IKEA聽and other household names.
Thousands of firms from then-West Germany聽and other Western countries subcontracted production to state-controlled firms behind the Iron Curtain, attracted by the low labour costs.
IKEA's investigation was prompted by Swedish and German news media reports that included interviews with former Stasi prison inmates. Some reports said there was evidence of the use of forced labour as early as 1984.
The auditors deployed forensic investigators, compliance experts, historians and journalists to study tens of thousands of documents from Stasi and聽IKEA聽company archives, and interviewed hundreds of聽IKEA聽staff and former GDR prisoners.
The investigators also looked into media reports that聽IKEA聽had produced furniture in communist聽Cuba聽using the forced labour of political prisoners. But they found this affected only a sample of sofas, which did not meet聽IKEA's quality standards.
The head of the聽present-day German federal authority聽charged with curating the Stasi's archives and investigating its crimes, Roland Jahn, said it was yet to be seen whether聽IKEA's probe went far enough.
IKEA聽has 338 stores in 40 countries.聽Founder Ingvar Kamprad, an 86-year-old billionaire who lives in聽Switzerland, still controls the group with his family and is no stranger to controversy, having been involved with a Swedish fascist group in the 1940s.
IKEA聽got into hot water this year for spying on employees in聽France聽and air-brushing women out of catalogues meant for Saudi Arabia. (Reporting by Stephen Brown, editing by Gareth Jones and Robert Woodward)
