24th September 2008
Report reveals many fashion brands need to take paying workers a living wage more seriously
Labour Behind the Label's third Let's Clean Up Fashion report reveals what different brands and retailers are, or are not doing, to ensure that the workers who stitch their clothes are paid a living wage.
Five retailers - Monsoon Accessorise, Gap, Marks and Spencer, Next and New Look - say they plan detailed projects to improve pay, though the latter four linked to harder work. And five more – Sainsbury's, Asda, Primark, Tesco and Arcadia (Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Outfit, Topshop, Topman and Wallis) – claim they will do something, but lack concrete information.
Of the retailers surveyed – those with the biggest market share – ten admitted they had no plans to do anything about garment employees’ poverty wages. These are Clarks, Debenhams, French Connection, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Laura Ashley, Matalan, Mosaic Fashions, River Island and Levi Strauss & Co. But Levi’s has decided against work on a living wage – enough for workers to meet bills for housing, healthcare and their children’s education. Seven retailers did not respond to the survey or make any information public - Alexon, Bhs, Burberry, Ethel Austin, MK One, Peacocks and Stylo.
Read the report on the Labour Behind the Label website.
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