Fair’s Fair enables pupils to debate some of the moral and ethical issues associated with the global trade in sportswear and Olympic merchandise. Pupils can explore the Olympic paradox: how an event founded on universal values like respect, equality and fair play can have such a poor track record on respecting people’s fundamental human rights at work.

For the Beijing Olympics, Play Fair researchers found 12-year-old children working 13-hour days making official Olympic branded stationery, and adults earning 14 pence per hour, some working 15-hour days, seven days a week in unsafe conditions.

How this reality fits with the Olympic ideal: “Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on … respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.” is indeed a paradox.

This new teaching resource enables pupils to learn about the lives of the people who make the sporting goods they buy, and better understand how they are connected to these workers through global supply chains. By exploring human and trade union rights in relation to the world of work – pupils will develop their understanding of why decent working conditions are part of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to end poverty by 2015.

Fair’s Fair includes lesson plans, activity sheets, photo cards and a DVD made with pupils.

By focussing on global connections, Fair’s Fair encourages pupils to take collective action to pressure decision makers to unravel this Olympic paradox and deliver Decent Work.

The Playfair 2012 campaign – which the TUC coordinates – has long been calling on the organisers of the London Games to disclose their supplier list, as part of our aim to encourage the sportswear industry and the Olympic movement to ensure that workers making their goods are not exploited.

The Games Organisers tell us that their suppliers are meeting high ethical standards and are abiding by the Ethical Trading Initiative code, which includes payment of a living wage, no child labour and respect for the right to join a union. This ethical bar was set as a result of ongoing talks between Playfair 2012 and the organisers. But when we ask the organisers for evidence to verify their claims, we are referred to a company database which requires payment to access information and even then the information given out is incredibly selective.

Since members of the public are contributing their hard earned cash towards London 2012, we believe they have the right to know that their money is being well-spent and not supporting the widespread exploitation of workers around the globe.

I expect the majority of us don’t want the London Games tarnished with similar stories of exploitation as those from last year’s World Cup with mascots being produced in sweatshop conditions, or the Beijing Olymipcs – where children as young as 12 years old produced official Olympic branded stationery.

Today, Adidas released its Olympic supplier list, which we welcome, and we will continue working with unions around the world to check that workers’ rights are being respected and that Adidas – as the official sportswear sponsor – is paying workers a living wage.

Over the last year, Adidas sales increased to £10.6 billion, and in 2010 the company’s CEO, Herbert Hainer, received a compensation package of around £4.3 million. Mr Hainer would almost certainly be protesting in the streets if he was earning the £680 a year basic wage that a worker making Adidas goods earns in Sri Lanka. It would take that, probably female, worker over 6,000 years to make a similar amount. Would most of us think that this embodies the Olympic values of respect, fair play and equality? Probably not.

But it’s not only about wages, Adidas and other sportswear brands should be doing more to work positively with unions, restrict the use of short-term contracts and build up better, long-term relationships with their suppliers.

A recent campaign success has been the signing of an agreement between the major sportswear brands, unions and suppliers in Indonesia. This is a major step forward in ensuring the right to freedom of association is respected, the key to workers being empowered to negotiate for better pay and working conditions, without being victimised.

With one year to go, openness and ensuring respect for workers’ rights needs to be at the heart of the London Games if it is successfully going to live up to the Olympic message about seeking a way of life based on …”respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.” (Olympic Charter, 2007)