The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Campaign T-shirt workers ‘paid only 30p an hour’
T-shirts sold to raise funds for Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign are being made by Bangladeshi workers paid just 30p an hour, it has been reported.
A national newspaper said it had found machinists living in povertystricken conditions were required to work 10 hours a day to make the garments which were sold for £10 each by the Momentum campaign group.
Momentum said it had cancelled the contract for the T-shirts suggesting that it may have been misled by one of its suppliers in relation to labour practices at the factory.
The group said it would draw up a code of practice capable of maintaining confidence, in spite of the complexity of modern supply chains, that all campaign materials have been produced by businesses that respect labour rights and human rights.
A spokesman said: “Momentum is dedicated to championing people’s rights at work both at home and overseas.
“We want every worker at home and abroad to be in a trade union, and to enjoy the full protections that the ILO (International Labour Organisation) recommends as minimum standards.
“We refuse to work with any supplier who does not uphold these standards.”
The newspaper reported the basic salary at the factory in Baipayl, near the capital Dhaka, was around £63 a month – well below the average wage in Bangladesh of £93.