Pakistani workers making clothes for UK’s Boohoo earning 63 rupees an hour — report

ISLAMABAD: An investigation by an international media outlet has revealed that Boohoo, one of Britain’s best-known fast fashion brands, was selling clothes made by Pakistani factory workers who earned as little as 29 pence an hour.
The investigation — published in the Guardian newspaper this week and based on interviews in the industrial city of Faisalabad — revealed that workers at two factories claimed they were paid Rs10,000 a month, well below the legal monthly minimum wage for unskilled labor of Rs17,500, while making clothes to be sold by Boohoo. Insiders claimed workers would sometimes do 24-hour shifts.
The factories have denied any wrongdoing and said workers were paid in accordance with local laws.
But one of more than a dozen workers interviewed by the Guardian said: “I know we are exploited and paid less than the legal minimum, but we can’t do anything … if I leave the job another person will be ready to replace me.”
After the Guardian approached Boohoo about the findings, the company suspended a supplier, JD Fashion Ltd, and a factory, AH Fashion, from its supply chain while it investigated the claims.
Another factory, Madina Gloves, denied workers’ claims that it had recently been making clothes for Boohoo. AH Fashion, which is closed for construction work, acknowledged it had fulfilled an order for the brand as recently as October.
Boohoo said it “will not tolerate any instance of mistreatment or underpayment of garment workers”. It said it was unaware of its clothes being made at Madina Gloves, and that AH Fashion was not on its approved supplier list for JD for an order delivered to the UK on 11 December.
While Boohoo’s code of conduct for suppliers sets out a list of minimum standards to be met by manufacturers of its clothes anywhere in the world, workers in two factories based in the Samanabad area of Faisalabad alleged that:
“While some are paid the legal minimum wage, others say they earn far less and receive no receipt or payslip to record their income. At Madina Gloves, which manufactures a range of clothes, workers are often ordered to work unreasonably long shifts without full overtime pay, stretching to 24 hours straight before major deadlines. Accommodation provided by Madina Gloves is squalid and one worker said they went without running water there for days at a time.”
Video footage seen by the Guardian appeared to show “potential fire risks at AH Fashion, including piles of fabric stacked up in walkways and near a boiler, and one clip showing motorbikes parked inside next to cardboard boxes.”