Boohoo supplier facing slavery probe over ‘staff on £3.50 an hour’
sister brands account for almost 75-80 per cent of production in Leicester, 60-70 from the per city. cent and of sources its production around In the Sunday Times investigation, the Boohoo Group supplier Jaswal Fashions offered an undercover reporter posing as an Indian student a job, but refused to tell him his salary until he had The health Secretary told of his ‘significant concerns’ yesterday over factories in Leicester where employees churning out garments destined for fast fashion giant Boohoo are reportedly paid as little as £3.50 per hour.
Matt hancock said there had been coronavirus outbreaks at textile factories as well as food production facilities in the city – which is in a localised lockdown.
Police swooped on at least nine socalled sweatshops in the area last week amid concerns of potential modern slavery offences and human trafficking.
An investigation found one garment factory in the city making items under the label of online fashion brand Nasty Gal, which is owned by the Boohoo Group, paying workers less than half the national minimum wage of £8.72 for those over the age of 25.
The factory foreman warned an undercover Sunday Times reporter that bosses ‘know how to exploit people like us. They make profits like hell and pay us in peanuts’.
Mr hancock told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: ‘There are quite significant concerns about some of the employment practices in some of the clothing factories in Leicester. They are important problems... but the number one problem that he this we’ve said virus ‘very got under to significant deal control.’ with is fines’ getting could be handed out, or businesses shut down, if employment laws and Government workplace safety guidance were found to have been breached.
A Daily Mail investigation on Saturday found that sick workers paid as little as £4-a-hour had continued going to work in the factories – mainly in the east of the city where the new coronavirus outbreak is centred – because they were scared of losing their jobs if they stayed at home.
Last week, a report by Labour Behind the Label, a garment workers’ rights group, alleged some suppliers were operating factories without social distancing measures. It said online fast fashion retailer Boohoo and its worked for at least a day on a trial basis. his foreman told him to expect £3.50 to £4 an hour. The foreman said: ‘I’ve been here for five years but never could I take a proper pay packet. I’m still only on just over £5 an hour.’
The factory was said to be operating last week without additional hygiene or social distancing measures in place. Boohoo, which owns Nasty Gal, PrettyLittleThing, MissPap, BoohooMAN, Karen Millen and Coast brands, is Britain’s fastest-growing online retailer and is valued at £4.9billion, more than twice as much as Marks and Spencer. A statement from Nasty Gal said the company would investigate the claims, but claimed Jaswal Fashions was not a ‘direct supplier’. It said: ‘Nasty Gal does not allow any of its suppliers to pay less than the minimum wage and has a zero-tolerance approach to incidences of modern slavery.’ On Friday, Leicestershire Police carried out routine visits at nine workplaces in the city to ensure health and safety, with one arrest made over an alleged immigration offence. No closure orders were issued but detectives said more operations were planned. Boohoo Group did not respond to a request for comment yesterday. But in response to the Labour Behind the Label report last week, the firm said it did not tolerate ‘any incidence of noncompliance especially in relation to the treatment of workers within our supply chain’. It added that it had ended relationships with suppliers found to have flouted its code of conduct.
‘Refused to tell him his salary’