September 20, 2007

Following the release of MSN’s report, MSN met with ex-Hermosa workers to discuss the findings. While they agreed with most of the study’s recommendations, workers had criticisms.

The workers felt that the report did not adequately describe the extent of their suffering since Hermosa’s closure. However, their main criticism of the report was that it did not explicitly state that the brands that had bought goods from the factory had a responsibility to pay the workers the full compensation owed to them given the failure of the owner or the government to do so.

In response to the brands’ concern that paying workers the full compensation owed might set a precedent for the future, Flor Jazmín, Secretaria de Actas de la Junta Directiva stated, “Brands perhaps should be more concerned about the negative precedents set by successive failures of their audits to uncover violations, including that the owner hadn’t been making legally required contributions to the social security program, and by the precedent set by the Salvadorian government in failing to meet its own legal responsibilities.”