MILAN - After a Chinese factory dormitory caught fire in November, killing seven people, the Guardia di Finanza has moved to crack down on other sweatshop factories conducting illegal operations in Tuscany.

 

Investigators discovered on Tuesday that three factories in Calenzano were providing illegal work to 111 people. The factories are all owned by the same Chinese family and manufacture small hardware for handbags, clothing, and accessories for luxurious brands, such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton.

 

The majority of workers in the Calenzano factories were Chinese and Senegalese immigrants, though two were Italian. Police report that 89 of the workers were not in possession of permits of stay while 22 were working without valid contracts.

 

The discoveries were made after police, joined by members of the National Institution for Social Welfare (INPS) and the National Institution for Insurance against Labour Accidents (INAIL), inspected the areas around the factories.

 

The INPS and INAIL, which ensure that workers are legally registered to safeguard working conditions and retirement funds, issued administrative sanctions reaching 233,500 euros for violations of the labour norms and regulations.

 

The factories were also issued fines totalling 44,000 euros by the Local Sanitary Agency (ASL), which inspected the precarious conditions of hygiene and the security of the machinery and locker rooms. 

 

The Carabinieri’s NAS division, responsible for hygiene in the production and commercialisation of alimentary substances, confiscated 1.6 tonnes of food and seized two unauthorized cafeterias. Four cylinders of liquefied petroleum gas (GPL) were also confiscated by the fire department.

 

A similar situation was also identified in nearby Empoli, where six Chinese-managed factories were discovered to be providing illegal work, while another factory was found to be producing counterfeit merchandise.

 

In one of the warehouses, 70 Chinese workers slept on elevated beds and 36 of the workers had no proper employment paperwork, police report. Three of the workers had illegally entered into the country. The fire department also removed seven cylinders of GPL from the building and closed the gas service.

 

Overall, 17 kilograms of fake “Prada” and “Gucci” metallic accessories were seized, along with 471 counterfeit bags, 15 machines, and 2 stamping devices.