Bangladeshi factory workers are being paid as little as 3p an hour to make cheap clothes for supermarket giants Asda and Tesco, and bargain clothes retailer Primark.
Charity company War on Want released a report documenting how workers in Bangladesh are regularly working 80 hour per week shifts in what it describes as ‘potential death trap factories’, to produce cheap clothes for British consumers.
More than 5,000, mainly women, workers make clothes at six Bangladeshi factories in the capital Dhaka for three high street companies .
Overtime payments of around £3 a month meant some workers were receiving just £11 a month (average wage in Bangladesh is a minimum of £22 a month) for a seven day week, which equals 3.1p an hour. The ‘Fashion Victims’ report also stated how some workers complained of being sexually assaulted, beaten, cheated out of pay and had their trade union banned.
All three companies, Primark, Tesco and Asda have made public commitments to the payment of a living wage to suppliers and have also stated that their suppliers must not work more than 48 hours a week.
However, War on Want says it found people working as weekly shifts of up to 96 hours.
War on Want’s chief executive, Louise Richards said, “Bargain retailers such as Primark, Asda and Tesco are only able to sell at rock bottom prices in the UK because women workers in Bangladesh are being exploited.”
“The companies are not even living up to their own commitments towards their overseas suppliers. The Labour government must bring in effective regulation to end such shameful practices.”
If poor pay and long hours wasn’t enough, the workers also find themselves in dangerous working conditions. Within one month, earlier in the year, over 100 staff members were killed in factory collapses and fires.
The release of the report is timed to coincide with the annual general meeting of Primark’s parent company in London, Associated British Foods .
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