Illegal work allowed to f lourish ‘due to fear of racism claims’
ILLEGAL conditions in Leicester’s fast fashion sweatshops have been allowed to persist because of officials’ ‘racial sensitivities’, an MP has claimed.
Mass- exploitation has been an ‘open secret’ for years with one report revealing up to 90 per cent of workers are not paid the minimum wage.
Over the last five years, there have been four separate reports – including two by parliamentary committees – acknowledging poor working environments, very low wages and exploitation of vulnerable migrants in ‘slave’ conditions.
Yesterday, HMRC – which investigates minimum wage law violations – came under fire after it emerged action was taken against just six clothing factories in the city between 2012 and 2018. A Home Office source told The Sunday Times: ‘HMRC has been asleep on this issue for ages. They are too busy going after Mrs Miggins. They do not do enough.’
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen likened the failure to clean up the sweatshops to the failure to tackle child sex grooming gangs in towns and cities such as Bradford and Rotherham for fear of racism.
Mr Bridgen, who represents North West Leicestershire, said: ‘There has been a total systemic failure by the organisations supposed to protect the public and those who work at these facworking
‘Nothing ever gets done about it’
tories. Some of it is down to racial sensitivities, and the same as the child abuse situation.’ Former North West chief crown prosecutor Nazir Afzal, who led prosecutions of child sex grooming gangs in Rochdale, said: ‘I think the desire for cultural sensitivity has played a part in what we’ve seen in Leicester but there are other issues as well. The broader issues are that the authorities don’t have the resources [to investigate].’
Leicester East Labour MP Claudia Webbe said: ‘It’s such an open secret that no one took any notice when I raised the issue during my maiden speech in March. Nothing ever gets done about it.’ Concerns about Leicester’s sweatshops resurfaced after fears a resurgence of coronavirus in the city may be linked to working conditions in the clothing factories used by internet retailers including Boohoo.
The first report documenting poor conditions was published in 2015 by Leicester University. It described ‘ excessive working hours, poor health and safety, health problems, verbal abuse, bullying, threats and humiliation’.
The report, led by academic Dr Nik Hammer, blamed subcontracting to small, unregulated factories and pressure in the industry to keep costs to a minimum.
Non-payment of the £8.72 per hour National Minimum Wage was ‘endemic’. The average wage was found to be £3 an hour, applying to ‘75-90 per cent of jobs’. Immigrants made ‘ vulnerable’ due to their poor English and lack of residency status were exploited, with the workforce ‘regularly replenished’ through new arrivals.
A 2017 report by the joint parliamentary committee on human rights found human rights abuses were ‘endemic’ in Leicester’s garments industry. The same year, a report by Leicester and Leicestershire Local Enterprise Partnership – a committee of business and council leaders – highlighted the same problems.
And in 2019 the parliamentary environmental audit committee found factories were still ‘breaking the law to maximise profits’. Leicester City Council said it has no powers to check working conditions inside a building, enforce the minimum wage, or monitor the legality of the workforce.