It has been revealed that factory workers in Leicester, who were making clothes for Boohoo, were allegedly being paid just £3.50 per hour. Tara Pilkington reports.
In the UK, the minimum wage for ages 25+ is £8.72, making these wages for the Boohoo factory workers based in Leicester illegal.
Since this news first broke, more than £1b has now been wiped off Boohoo’s value as investigations continue into practices in their Leicester factory.
A report by The Sunday Times revealed that staff were being paid as little as £3.50 an hour and they were not wearing protective masks to stop the spread of coronavirus.
During the nationwide lockdown as a result of the pandemic, clothing made by suppliers in Leicester directly helped fuel rapid sales growth for Boohoo who witnessed particularly strong conversions while people remained at home and had extra time to shop online.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Boohoo sales for the previous year until February rose by 44% to £1.2b. Additionally, Boohoo’s co-founders Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane were both paid more than £1.3m each for the last financial year.
Boohoo PLC currently owns the brands:
- Boogoo
- boohooMAN
- Pretty Little Thing
- Nasty Gal
- MissPap
- Karen Millen
- Coast
- Oasis
- Warehouse
In a statement, Boohoo said in that it was not sure who was supplying all of its garments. However, Labour rights experts have said that the existence of ‘opaque supplier networks’ created a risk of exploitation in the fashion industry.
Peter McAllister, the executive director of the Ethical Trading Initiative, said: “It bothers me greatly that the emergence of a new garments industry in the UK is being built around the same production model and lack of accountability that we’ve seen leading to big problems with exploitation in the global south”.
Leicester has also seen more public attention recently as it has seen a localised rise in coronavirus outbreaks, following cramped conditions and insufficient safety measures in some garment factories which are believed to have played a role in the transmission of the virus.
