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Some members of the British parliament recently called for a compulsory garment trade adjudicator following the failure of voluntary initiatives to stamp out labour abuses in the UK fashion industry. The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) expressed shock that underpayment of wages and poor conditions appeared to be rife in UK garment factories over the last three years.
The committee said voluntary corporate social responsibility initiatives had failed to significantly improve pay and working conditions, and the government should therefore explore the introduction of an adjudicator.
“Purchasing a garment with a ‘Made in the UK’ label ought to be a guarantee that the workers who produced it are paid at least the minimum wage, in a workplace which is safe. We found that it is not,” EAC wrote in a letter to business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.
UK garment workers are being underpaid by over £2 million a week in unpaid wages, according to estimates of the British Retail Consortium, while the campaign group Labour Behind the Label alleged that workers in some garment factories in Leicester were forced to work during the first lockdown, despite high levels of infection in those factories, the letter said.
There are also increasing concerns about the use of forced and prison camp labour in international textile supply chains, notably in chains which pass through the Xinjiang region of China, while Sedex, an organisation promoting responsibility in supply chains, told the committee about ‘significant risks of forced labour’ in Bangladesh, Turkey and India.
Meanwhile, brands and retailers had delayed or refused payment to suppliers during the pandemic, pushing its negative impact on to workers in the UK and globally.
Fiona Gooch, of the fair trade charity Traidcraft Exchange, told the EAC that the UK was ‘among the worst’ for cancelled orders, with around 80 UK retailers cancelling orders for finished items worth more than £750 million from Bangladesh alone by June last year.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
Some members of the British parliament have called for a compulsory garment trade adjudicator following the failure of voluntary initiatives to stamp out labour abuses in the UK fashion industry.The Environmental Audit Committee expressed shock that underpayment of wages and poor conditions appeared to be rife in UK garment factories in the last three years.