Humiliated by abuse allegations and lost business, Shane, Boohoo and Missguided must decide to change.

When the Rolling Stones ended a licensing deal with Chinese clothing retailer Shein in November over allegations of labor abuse in its supply chain, the news marked a bad year for the fashion industry, even by conflicting industry standards.

In 2022, every major online brand has been embarrassed by malicious revelations, including British firms Missguided and Boohoo. But no matter how often reports continue to surface of these companies’ cheap clothing being made and shipped by workers working long hours for very little pay, will that make a difference in 2023?

Liv Simpliciano and her colleagues are doing everything for this. As policy and research manager for Fashion Revolution, a UK-based organization campaigning for living wage legislation in clothing, textiles and footwear, she believes that sustainable media coverage has an impact on consumers.

“These research reports are very important in educating the public,” she says. “No one would want to get involved in such an exploitative fashion system if they only knew the facts.”

So last year’s humility began in May I it emerged that Missguided, headquartered in Manchester, was about to take over management. He owed millions of pounds to his suppliers as he reportedly kept ordering more clothes from them despite not paying for previous shipments.

Factories in the supply chain suffered huge losses, but the brand was bought by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group and the site was soon up and running again.

In October it was Shein’s turn, the world’s largest fashion retailer. An undercover Channel 4 documentary investigation alleged that the garment workers at the two Chinese factories that make clothes for Shein often worked up to 18 hours a day, paying as little as 3 cents each, with no days off and just one day off per month.

It was after I brought these findings to the attention of the Rolling Stones a few weeks later when the group announced to Shein that they could no longer sell clothes with their name and logo, even though these were only 59 products out of over 1,000 new designs they had released. every day the market brings.

Shein later acknowledged that the shifts were running longer than the rules allowed and set up a whistleblowing system, although he denied other allegations after an independent review.

Burmese workers who make F&F jeans for Tesco’s Thai subsidiary claim they are trapped in what is effectively forced labor in a UK Supreme Court lawsuit. They allege that between 2017 and 2020 they illegally earned low wages while working 99-hour weeks in poor conditions in Thailand.

Tesco did not own the factory or participate in its day-to-day operations, but the lawsuit alleges that the supermarket was negligent in failing to prevent operation. Tesco said it had reported the allegations Defender were “incredibly serious” last month, adding: “If we had recognized such problems at the time they occurred, we would have terminated our relationship with this supplier immediately.”

Department stores that distribute clothing bags to shoppers have also come under the spotlight. Workers at Boohoo fulfillment center in Burnley complained of racism and harassment to an undercover reporter who works for Timewho ran “collector” at 32°C up to 34 km per shift, even if it was only 19°C outside.

Boohoo said they take the claims “very seriously” but do not believe that “the image they paint reflects the work environment.” She filed an application to open a criminal case against the investigation.

The company has been looking to rebuild its reputation following the 2020 Leicester scandal, which revealed that conditions in factories supplying the brand posed a “significant risk of disaster”. He drastically reduced the number of factories in use and introduced a stricter auditing regime.

However, today there are problems in Leicester. In July, the Low Pay Commission warned of “widespread and egregious” labor law violations in the city’s apparel sector that contribute to benefit fraud and tax evasion.

“What we have seen over the past year is devastating, but nothing new,” Simpliciano says. “It’s exhausting to constantly identify these problems… So I’m thinking, where is the bottom?”

For many, the 2013 Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh, when five garment factories collapsed, killing at least 1,132 people and injuring more than 2,500, was a wake-up call about sewing conditions. .

The industry has “advanced” since then, she admits, but not enough.

“After the devastating impact of canceling orders on factories during the pandemic, we hoped that this would be a turning point and that brands would finally take responsibility for their purchasing practices, recognizing that their behavior affects the ability of suppliers to provide good working conditions and employees. be paid on time.

“But recently, Boohoo extended payment terms from 30 days to 60 days due to a deteriorating credit rating for an insurance company, falling consumer demand, inflation and the economic downturn… This means consumers are wearing clothes long before suppliers.” [are] even paid for it.

Simpliziano is the lead author of the Fashion Transparency Index, which analyzes what the world’s 250 biggest fashion brands and retailers publish about how and where their clothes are made. The latest report released in August showed that more big brands than ever are publishing a list of their cutting edge manufacturers, but half of the big brands still don’t disclose information about their supply chains.

However, she believes that a “climate of change” is emerging around the world. She hopes that new laws in the EU and the US will lead to global improvements in regulators and consumers scrutinizing sustainability requirements.

Dr Jonathan Lord, Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Labor Law at the University of Salford, says it’s harder to be optimistic when it comes to fighting labor abuse in the UK clothing industry.

“Companies can get away with it,” he says, arguing that it is too difficult for unions to win recognition from industry employers and promote their empowerment and worker protection.

Lord is frustrated by the lack of law enforcement in Leicester and sees it as a symptom of a wider violation of workers’ rights by companies in other sectors of the economy.

“Look at P&O Ferries, which last March fired 800 employees without consultation. Peter Hebblethwaite, the CEO, was present at the Commons committee hearing and admitted that the company had broken the law, but was he disqualified as a director? No.”

He adds: “I hate to be a pessimist, but I don’t really see the government doing anything about the current economic situation. You are dealing with a recession, a cost-of-living crisis, and many other issues. Why are they targeting these big companies?”