On 11th October, Sunday, a second letter issued by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has alleged that the government has failed to prevent exploitation of garment workers in the UK.
In their letter to Priti Patel, BRC estimates that workers have lost equivalent of £27m in unpaid earnings since July and that there has been no "significant action... to bring this injustice to an end". The letter reads, "We are writing as a broad coalition of parliamentarians, businesses, investors and civil society organisations about our concerns regarding the unethical labour practices taking place in garment factories across the UK. We request that urgent action is taken by the government to implement a 'fit to trade' licensing scheme that ensures all garment factories are meeting their legal obligations to their employees."
According to the group over 10,000 garment factory workers are being paid an average of £3.50 an hour - well below the National Minimum Wage of £8.72. Over the last few months there have numerous controversial reports about certain businesses forcing their employees to work in “poor work conditions” with staff at Leicester based factories being paid below legal minimum wages. Some of these factories allegedly did not even have due coronavirus health and safety measures in place. The Home Office had earlier been on record to state that they were looking into this investigation.
Now, in a second letter to the home secretary, the BRC and Dr Lisa Cameron MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Textiles & Fashion, said that there had been little response. The BRC said that although it had discussed the plight of garment workers with officials since July, it had not received an official response to its first letter. But the Home Office has denied such claims.
In a statement to the BBC, the Home Office said, "Exploiting vulnerable workers for commercial gain is despicable and we expect businesses to do all they can to tackle abuse and exploitation in their supply chains.
"We are deeply concerned by the appalling reports of illegal and unsafe working conditions for garment workers in Leicester, and will ensure perpetrators face the full force of the law if evidence comes to light through the work of our new specialist Taskforce, led by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority."
