sweatshop horror

Fair trade is not just about where and who you buy your cotton from it is so much more that that its about fair pay and how people are treating there work force. fair trade plays a massive part in the fashion industry so its important that you meet the standards there has been many incidents with big brand name companies where people have boycott the stores due to low fair trade standards this has a massive decrease in there sales and profit for example when primark was in the new about unfair pay to there factory workers people started to boycott the shop and started to protest this gave primark a bad reputation and less people started shopping their.

"The budget retailer was the focus of an expose by the BBC’s Panorama in 2008, which found that children were working in Indian refugee camps to produce some of its cheapest clothes. Primark promptly cut its ties with the suppliers and apologised profusely, but it clearly wasn't great for the image. Doesn't seem to have put the majority of punters off"


unknown (2010). Primark shifting gear - and Fairtrade also picking up. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/985473/Primark-shifting-gear---Fairtrade-picking/. [Last Accessed 23/05/12].

Cheap labour in sweatshops.


Often the case of cheap clothes means cheap labour, what about fair trade standards their obviously not been met!


 High street shops such as Marks & Spencer, Mothercare and H&M, confirmed that the wages paid to there  garment workers were as low as £1.13 for a nine-hour days work. This fails to meet their basic needs, This falls below the minimum international labour standards promised by the Ethical Trading Initiative.


Karen McVeigh (2007). The sweatshop high street - more brands under fire. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/sep/03/retail.supermarkets. [Last Accessed 23/05/12].

Workers were often refused leave even when ill should't the workers health come first?
A worker that produced clothes for H&M said that "15 people would claps per day and had to be given medical help!". 


Karen McVeigh (2007). The sweatshop high street - more brands under fire. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/sep/03/retail.supermarkets. [Last Accessed 23/05/12].

This is disgusting but it get worse i'm sure in the last few month of a pregnancy you are able to go on paid maternity leave? well not in this case, a woman of 2 ages 25 worked full term and when she fell into labour had to fill in forms that took one and a half half hours to fill in this is absolutely horrendous.

A month later, a nine-month pregnant woman from Shalina Creations, a factory supplying Gap, went into labour at work and subsequently lost her baby. Rathnamma, 27, a mother of two, claimed that she was refused immediate leave on March 29 this year, after going into labour. When she asked to go home, the production manager made her fill in forms that took an hour and a half, she said. "I was in such pain, I could hardly stand up."

When she finally made it outside the factory gates, she collapsed, she said, and gave birth to the baby in the street. A passerby helped her into an auto ricksaw, but when she got home, she discovered the baby was dead.     

Karen McVeigh (2007). The sweatshop high street - more brands under fire. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/sep/03/retail.supermarkets. [Last Accessed 23/05/12].

This in not fair trade! when companies get their garments manufactured abroad they need to meet the  international labour standards promised by the Ethical Trading Initiative, they have to cater to the needs of the workers and keep in mind they have family's they need to support , in this case they have failed to meet this and also the health and safety of the workers.