What mattered was the speed of production and not the safety of the worker in the illegal factories where the rhythms at which bags and belts sold as luxury Made in Italy accessories were made were "exhausting" and illegal and exploited immigrants were , except for an Italian girl of Chinese or Pakistani origins. And precisely to allow the creation of each piece to be made as quickly as possible from the gluing machine, the plexiglass insert necessary to "prevent the worker from accidentally getting caught with his hands or clothing" had been removed. The flag die-cutting machine did not have the "emergency stop device" while the "safety cup" had been removed from the edge dyeing machine and the "guard" usually installed to protect fingers from the sewing machine.
It is a disturbing insight, where the human being and his health have little importance, what comes to light from the investigations of the Carabinieri of the Labor Inspectorate Unit, coordinated by prosecutors Paolo Storari and Luisa Baima Bollone, on the illegal laboratories that produced in subcontract for Giorgio Armani Operations Spa, a company of the fashion giant which has been under judicial administration since yesterday, in order to protect its business activity.
The investigation which led to the registration of only the owners of the four clandestine factories involved in the register of suspects, reconstructed the 'supply chain' starting from GA Operations - no employee nor even the top management were touched by the investigation - which had officially entrusted the production of the garments to Manifatture Lombarde srl and MinoRonzoni srl, companies in the Milanese and Bergamo areas, which did not have the slightest authorization to outsource the work, as instead happened. The two companies, one of which is led by Alessandro Budel, the former footballer who also wore the shirts of Brescia and Cagliari, as well as a sports commentator for Dazn, and their administrators are currently not under investigation. What appears instead is the lack of a "suitable" organization to process the orders and the consequent recourse to clandestine "sub-suppliers" where, as is the picture outlined by the prosecutors and judges of the Prevention Measures section, exploitation and the lack of safety and hygiene and the 'degrading' conditions in which the workers worked and at the same time lived - they ate and lived in the same premises and even in contact with poorly kept chemical and flammable substances - is considered 'a symptomatic alarm bell (...) of a generalized and consolidated production system' on which a spotlight has been turned on: in addition to this and the case of Alviero Martini spa (it was sold twenty years ago by its founder) there are checks on other companies.
In this regard, GA Operations, which believes it has "always had in place control and prevention measures aimed at minimizing abuses in the supply chain", the Court explains that it would have "culpably fueled" this 'mechanism' as it would not have 'verified the real entrepreneurial capacity of the contracting companies". Hence the decision to place a commissioner alongside the administrative bodies "in favor and protection of the activity" of the maison, one of the most well-known at an international level.
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