A Financial Times report published on 17th of May, compiled by Sarah O’Connor, titled ‘Dark factories: labour exploitation in Britain’, reveals the unethical issues plaguing Britain's garment manufacturing industry. The report highlights how such factories in Leicesterare littered with issues including poor, below minimum wage, pay to unsafe working environments. The report starts with a simple question, “How is it possible to make cheap clothes in a country where the minimum wage for over-25s is £7.83 an hour?” The report concludes that if retailers were able to truly collaborate with manufacturers, they could create decent jobs for a community that needs them while enjoying the benefits of sourcing close to home.
The report analysed several online and high-street brands selling garments in the country, such as Boohoo and H&M. As O'Connor notes, “Over the five years to 2016-17, HM Revenue & Customs, which has recently had its enforcement budget doubled, has identified about £33m of arrears for almost 232,000 people who have been paid under minimum wage nationwide. Of that total, it found underpayment in just 19 employers in the textile sector, owing £44,371 to 83 workers”.
The report quoted Peter McAllister, executive director of the Ethical Trading Initiative, as saying, “We want to see UK manufacturing thrive, but it mustn’t be based on a 19th-century model of exploitation and poor working conditions”.
The report questions the probable claim of the enforcement agencies to be unaware. It says, “Representatives from UK Visas and Immigration, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority all attended a meeting hosted by Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby last October, where the problems were discussed in detail. But a comb through freedom-of-information requests, MPs questions and public records does not reveal a state that has done much to sort this out”.
The primary concern that the report raises is this: “Perhaps the strangest thing about this labour exploitation is that it is an open secret. Central government knows; local government knows; retailers know”. Overall, O'Connor notes that from what was once a thriving industry, thwarted by the ‘cheap needle’ overseas to the small but growing factories that exist today, this garment trade can be said to have made a welcome return to the country. However, for it to work ethically and lawfully, factories and government authorities need to work together.
