"Shein Workers Have Had It—and They’re Going Public"

Gig workers in China are posting videos highlighting the allegedly precarious working conditions powering Shein's aggressive growth.

... he picked 650 clothing items during his last shift ... in part, by not taking a single bathroom break ...

....In a third clip shared to the short-form video platform Kuaishou in November, another Shein worker ....tells the camera she is having trouble lifting her left hand after completing an 11-and-a-half hour shift at a Shein warehouse. “My first time working in logistics, there won’t be a second time,” reads the caption.

Over the past three years, dozens of purported gig workers at Shein fulfillment centers in southern China have filmed day-in-the-life vlogs like these, sharing with viewers extensive details about their wages, working conditions, and reasons for choosing to take jobs in the logistics industry.

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... Shein enjoys another major benefit from operating warehouses in China: the ability to staff them with precarious gig workers who are not guaranteed the same protections and benefits that full-time employees are entitled to by law.

Job advertisements for Shein logistics roles in Guangdong province seen by WIRED indicate that many of the people who work in the company’s fulfillment centers are recruited through a controversial system known as “labor dispatch.” The arrangement allows firms to outsource responsibility for cohorts of temporary workers to staffing agencies, which oversee their wages, benefits, and other aspects of their working conditions.

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Under Chinese law, only 10 percent of a company’s staff is supposed to be made up of labor dispatch workers. But .... companies can also circumvent the limit by hiring workers categorized under different outsourcing schemes that function in largely the same way, a strategy that job advertisements indicate Shein is using.

A spokesperson for Shein confirmed to WIRED that the company “works with third-party vendors to staff the vast majority of our warehouse operations,” but declined to specify what percentage of the workers are categorized as labor dispatch. “Shein’s practices are aligned with industry standards and comply with local laws and regulations,” the spokesperson said in an email.

Because many of Shein’s warehouse staffers are classified as gig workers, they are not guaranteed a set hourly wage, just like Uber drivers and food delivery couriers. Job listings and several videos reviewed by WIRED indicate that while workers are promised a monthly base salary, their total compensation is calculated based on their productivity levels, a system summed up as “more work, more pay.”

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