"Press release: New report highlights gendered impacts of cheap clothing in UK fashion supply chains", 18 March 2025

A new report...publishes first-hand accounts from women migrant garment workers in Leicester, detailing the feminised impact of precarious work on their lives. Garment workers share accounts of gender-based violence, both at work and in the home, linked to precarious and low paid jobs, and detail how this is a common experience for women workers in garment factories in the UK...

...the report details the impact of recent order reductions linked to the flight of the fashion trade from the city, and the intersectional vulnerabilities to exploitation experienced by workers due to the precarious nature of their employment and status.

While 10,000 workers in over 1000 factories were employed in the sector in 2020, a mass decline in orders has taken place, with factory numbers more than halving, leaving many women workers unemployed and facing financial hardship...

“For the past few months I was not called to work full time. My hours dropped from 45 a week to 20. It was the same for my husband, who works in a different factory. My boss says the brands are not committed to orders. If these brands are selling in the UK, which they are, then they should commit to the UK. We want decent work and decent pay. We want the factories to stay open. Being a migrant, this is the only work I know, and I am dependent on it.”

Alena Ivanova from Labour Behind the Label said: “The significant influence and power of global brands in fashion supply chains, who move production around the world without consideration for the impact on women left behind, must be moderated. These stories show how women are exploited by the choices brands make. Precarious work is the bedrock of many fashion supply chains, making millions for top fashion execs, but little for the women making our clothes, who experience discrimination and domination linked to their gender, migration status and social position. These women deserve better.”...

The study calls on fashion brands to deliver fairer global purchasing practices and make decent work a reality for informal workers, particularly women, across their supply chains.