"Poor working conditions persist in Leicester garment factories, finds survey", 13 June 2022

More than half of the Leicester garment workers involved in a new study say they are paid below the minimum wage and receive no holiday pay, almost two years on from revelations about poor standards in the city’s factories.

The study was commissioned by a new body, the Garment and Textile Workers Trust, which is funded by online fashion retailer Boohoo...

The 116 workers who filled in a questionnaire – carried out for the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab and De Montfort University between November last year and this March – revealed they continued to suffer poor treatment. Complaints included workers not being allowed to take breaks, lack of sick pay and being pressured to work long shifts.

Almost half (49%) of those involved in the study received no sick pay, 56% had been paid below the minimum wage, 55% did not receive holiday pay and a third had no contract and did not receive a payslip.

Workers said they were nervous to speak out for fear of reprisals, with more than half fearing they would lose their job and 8% saying they were not working legally, either because they were claiming benefits or due to their immigration status. About 4% said they did not have the right to work in the UK.

The report says that tolerance to “malpractice and criminality” has partly been prompted by a perception of “ineffective or nonexistent law enforcement” in response to the problem in Leicester and “no meaningful changes resulting from previous interventions”...

Its 10 recommendations include creating a single point of contact for workers wishing to make a complaint to enforcement agencies, rather than them having to contact HMRC, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority or a string of other bodies responsible for health and safety.

Other recommendations include English language and other training to give workers’ more employment choices and establishing a locally based multi-sector and multi-agency partnership to coordinate action...

Boohoo Group said in a statement: “The independent research that [the trust has] commissioned has provided real-time post pandemic insight into the lived experience of the those working in and around Leicester’s textile industry. We are fully behind the trust’s objectives which do not replace or replicate the responsibility and progress that we have made in strengthening standards and oversight in our own supply chain in the city.

“We are committed to working closely all interested parties to ensure the people who make our clothes have their rights in the workplace protected.”

Kevin McKeever, chair of the trust, said: “It’s crystal clear that there’s only so much companies, individuals, trade unions and civil society can do to tackle labour exploitation in Leicester and beyond – it’s time for government to step up and form – and fund – their long-promised single enforcement body.”

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