Rights group Amnesty International published Monday a report that accused the Saudi Arabian franchise of French supermarket giant Carrefour of exploiting migrant workers.
Carrefour told AFP that an internal probe had not confirmed most allegations but was planning on conducting an external review.
Amnesty said it found migrant workers for Carrefour’s Saudi Arabian franchisee were deceived by recruitment agents, forced to work excessive hours, denied days off, cheated of their earnings and made to live in squalid accommodations.
“Workers thought they were opening the door to a better life but instead many were subjected to appalling exploitation and abuse,” said Marta Schaaf, who heads up Amnesty International’s corporate accountability programme.
“Carrefour’s inaction meant it failed to prevent this suffering, which for some contracted workers likely amounts to forced labour including human trafficking,” she added.
Amnesty based its report on interviews with 17 people recruited from India, Nepal and Pakistan to work in Carrefour stores in Saudi Arabia, which have been operated by the French retailer’s Middle East franchisee Majid Al Futtaim (MAF).
Amnesty said Carrefour has responsibility to ensure labour abuses do not occur throughout its operations, including in franchises, and called on it and MAF to remedy the situation and “ensure that workers in their operations are never harmed again.”
Carrefour said that it had discussions with Amnesty earlier this year on labour conditions in Saudi Arabia and that it had asked MAF to investigate.
“These preliminary investigations did not confirm the elements signalled by Amnesty’s alert but did reveal other problems: housing, training and accounting of work hours for which corrective actions were taken,” Carrefour told AFP on Friday.
It added that it had appointed an outside expert to review the human rights situation and the assessment methodology was being determined.
Saudi Arabia’s human resources ministry said on Monday that the government had a zero-tolerance policy for worker abuse.
“Any form of labour abuse or exploitation is unacceptable, and allegations of this nature are comprehensively investigated by the relevant authorities,” the ministry said in a written statement in response to questions from AFP.
The ministry also said it works closely with the governments of migrant workers’ home countries to combat abusive recruitment practices.
The statement did not specifically address Amnesty’s allegations against Carrefour.
Dubai-based MAF manages nearly 500 Carrefour stores in 30 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, with Saudi Arabia its second largest market behind the United Arab Emirates.
The company earned a net profit of around $735 million last year on revenues of $9.4 billion.