Online fashion giant Boohoo says it will investigate its supply chain after an undercover investigation claimed some UK garment workers were being paid just £3.50 (AU$6.27 an hour) to make Nasty Gal garments through the coronavirus pandemic.
After sending an undercover reporter into a Leicester factory, The Sunday Times stated that workers handling clothes bearing Boohoo’s Nasty Gal label could expect to be paid well below minimum wage.
The paper reports that few social distancing guidelines were in place on site, and that most employees worked without masks, despite Leicester facing a localised lockdown as the city battles a spike in coronavirus cases.
The factory in question bore the name Jaswal Fashions, but that company stated it ceased trading back in 2018 and didn’t supply garments to Boohoo.
In a statement, the Boohoo board said it was “shocked and appalled by the recent allegations” of supplier malpractice.
They vowed to launch an independent review of the company’s supply chain, and promoted an “incremental £10 million (AU$18 million)” to “eradicate supply chain malpractice”.
The company claims the garments were actually made in Morocco, and were merely repackaged at the Leicester facility. Boohoo states a second company undertook this task in the former Jaswal Fashions building.
Earlier, a Nasty Gal representative said the brand doesn’t permit suppliers to pay below minimum wage and enforces a zero-tolerance rule on modern slavery.
And, in a statement supplied to the BBC, Boohoo now states it’s “taking immediate action to thoroughly investigate how our garments were in their hands,” and “will urgently review our relationship with any suppliers who have sub-contracted work to the manufacturer in question.”
While not referencing Jaswal Fashions or Boohoo directly, the UK’s National Crime Agency has confirmed officers have visited businesses in the Leicester area to “assess concerns of modern slavery and human trafficking.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government was prepared to shut down any businesses which weren’t adhering to the city’s coronavirus restrictions.
“Clearly, this has uncovered some significant other problems in Leicester in terms of employment practices, and that absolutely needs to be dealt with as well,” he said.
