Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
The report estimates that workers are being collectively denied roughly £1million in wages each week
The report estimates that workers are being collectively denied roughly £1million in wages each week (Image not of worker in UK) Photograph: ETI
The report estimates that workers are being collectively denied roughly £1million in wages each week (Image not of worker in UK) Photograph: ETI

Made in Britain: UK textile workers earning £3 per hour

This article is more than 9 years old

New research by the University of Leicester suggests widespread exploitation and employment law violations in the UK textile industry

While Leicester’s giant red brick spinning mills might have fallen silent, they have been replaced by the noise of thousands sewing machines whirring across a network of small garment factories and workshops that criss-cross the city.

However, “Made in Britain”, may not be what you might expect, with a damning new report of endemic exploitation inside the East Midlands garment industry.

According to researchers at the University of Leicester, there were 11,700 employees in the sector in 2010. From this workforce 75-90% were being paid £3 per hour. This is less than half of the legal minimum wage of £6.50 and far below the UK living wage of £7.85 per hour.

The report estimates that workers are being collectively denied roughly £1m in wages each week, and forced to complement their wages with welfare benefits. On top of that it details widespread workplace practices including: inadequate health and safety standards, bullying, threats, arbitrary humiliation, denial of toilet breaks, theft of maternity pay and the absence of employment contracts.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one fashion designer describes working in a Leicester design studio, which had a factory attached where designs for UK high street retailers were produced within weeks. “Through talking to the workers we found out that many of them were paid less than £3 per hour,” she said. “This factory was one of the better ones, yet it had no contracts, paid less than the minimum wage, health and safety breaches were widespread and the workforce had little or no awareness of what they were entitled to as employees.”

The designer quit her job when her company contracted an order out to “a makeshift factory at the back of a house … when I say a “factory”, it was just a built-up shed,” she said. “The culture of buying is the ‘race to the bottom’ – how cheap can I possibly get this?”

Invisible workers

According to the report, the workers are predominantly women and largely from Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi migrant communities or from eastern Europe.

“On paper they could walk away,” says Dr Nik Hammer, lead researcher for the University of Leicester report, commissioned by the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). “But what we found was that it was the language skills in many cases that prevents them from taking jobs in other sectors.”

There was also a need to balance much-needed paid work with caring for children or family members, says Hammer. Leicester’s child poverty rate stands at 37%. So while the garment factory jobs are draining, poorly paid and conducive to ill health, they are also sought after, explains the report.

Attempts to unionise the sector have been hampered by high staff turnover. “You get a handful of people who start organising but again, it’s the fear factor that stops that spreading,” says Paresh Patel, a regional organiser for Unite. “We translate materials for workers so they know what their rights are, and we hold surgeries for people from the sector to come along and meet with us. Until we can get that engagement from the workforce itself, it’s going to be difficult to make a difference at ground level.”

For the public, however, the workers will remain invisible. “If you get something cheap, there is a reason for that – what has made it so cheap? Ultimately, businesses need to cut their costs, and where do they cut their costs – it’s usually with labour,” says Patel.

Brands ignoring problem

Exploitation in Leicester’s garment factories has largely been below the radar, though in 2010 Channel 4’s Dispatches found a number of UK companies including Arcadia, owned by businessman and government advisor Philip Green, to be using Leicester sweatshops. Regulation of the sector has, arguably, been made more difficult by the factory inspectorate, the HSE, having its budget cut by 35%.

So far, neither researchers nor the ETI have been willing to name the brands involved in exploiting workers, despite the report acknowledging that: “Lead firms generally seemed to be aware of the key non-compliances in East Midlands apparel manufacturing, even if this awareness was based on circumstantial evidence or suspicions that minor violations only constitute the tip of the iceberg.”

Although shocked by the findings, The ETI says that it wants to initially take a voluntary approach to working with brands and suppliers to force through improvements.

“We strongly support continued growth within Leicester’s garment and textiles sector, says ETI head of programmes Debbie Coulter. “But this needs to be based on working conditions that, at the very least, meet the legal minimum. This report has identified a number of very concerning workers’ rights issues and we need to work with a broad base of stakeholders to address these.”

The sustainable fashion hub is funded by H&M. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled ‘brought to you by’. Find out more here.

Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox.

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed