Not everyone's in the pink

Roger Federer's hot pink Nike shoes were a major talking point of the Australian Open.

In Indonesia, workers making Nike could never afford these shoes, pink or not.

Recent reports of workers making Nike shoes in Indonesia being stood over by military personnel and forced to accept less than the minimum wage demonstrate the gap between a company's stated policies and practices.

Over the past decade, following intense public pressure, Nike has developed a code of conduct and corporate social responsibility reporting.

It has done a lot to try to improve its practices in recent years, and also reports on the location of factories, the payment of minimum wages and other conditions in their 841 supplier factories around the world.

This transparency is an important step towards helping ensure workers are fairly treated, but it does not go far enough.

Recent events have shown there are still serious problems in the factories producing sportswear for Nike.

Two weeks ago, workers at the Sukabumi Nike supplier factory, west of Jakarta, were reportedly shouted at and threatened into agreeing their factory be exempt from paying them the legal minimum wage.

Workers in Indonesia tell Oxfam that the minimum wage is barely enough to feed themselves and their families.

Wages remain very low across the entire footwear and garment sector. Alarmingly, threats and intimidation of workers are still common when workers try to organise to improve conditions.

Nike's own code of conduct expressly prohibits worker discrimination and intimidation. So why do workers' rights abuses persist?

While brands like Nike, Adidas, and Puma have codes of conduct which require supplier factories to uphold human rights, the internal 'sourcing departments' of the same companies – which coordinate all aspects of production - push supplier factories to provide the lowest possible costing for each pair of shoes or garment.

So, two sections of the same company have vastly different – and competing - mandates.

This pressure for the lowest price is passed directly on to workers who frequently face harassment or dismissal if they try to negotiate better pay or conditions.

There are one million workers making Nike products in 43 countries; the majority are women aged 18-24.

These young women bear the brunt of unfair conditions.

In addition to low wages and insecure employment, women workers are often subjected to gender-specific abuses of their rights, including sexual harassment and discrimination against workers who become pregnant.

Nike does not own these supplier factories, so is able to stay at arm's length from the conditions.

To deal with this problem, Indonesian worker representatives, with Oxfam's support, have negotiated directly with Nike and Adidas over the past two years to develop a set of guidelines for supplier factories, with the aim of ensuring workers are treated fairly.

The guidelines, known as the Protocol, complement existing Indonesian law and focus specifically on the right to organise and collectively bargain for better conditions.

The Protocol goes further than Nike's code of conduct by detailing exactly howworkers in Indonesian factories should be free to organise better conditions without being subject to intimidation or harassment.

Over the past year, Nike, along with several other brands such as Adidas and Puma, has begun rolling out the Protocol to its supplier factories across Indonesia.

If the Protocol is implemented, it has the potential to improve conditions for hundreds of thousands of sportswear workers.

But without Nike and others providing real incentives for their supplier factories, like fair prices and long-term contracts, this important initiative could fail.

The recent report from Sukabumi is a real opportunity for Nike to step up its efforts to implement this important Protocol throughout all its supplier factories.

Concerned consumers in Australia have a role to play too, by sending a clear message to Nike and other brands and putting pressure on them to continue improving their practices.

Over the past two years, thousands of people have signed petitions and written letters to Nike through Oxfam's website.

At a time when its practices are in the spotlight again, consumers can keep the pressure on Nike to continue to do better.