Recent investigations show that shops like Primark, H&M, Tesco, Lidl, Aldi and Zara have been paying suppliers in Bangladesh less than the cost of production for their wares, which means the factories are forced to pay their workers less than the minimum wage.
Some of the poorest people in the world work in the global fashion industry sewing clothes for us in the West, earning a pittance in modern slavery conditions. This year is ten years on from the Rana Plaza factory disaster which killed over 1000 workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh (the world’s worst industrial accident).
This appalling behaviour from our high street brands is putting even more pressure on Bangladesh, which also has to cope with being in the top ten countries of the world worst affected by climate change and the world’s least developed country according to the UN.
What to do? Complain in store or via the shops’ websites, and support Transform Trade, who ran the investigation and are running a petition.
