Global fashion brands accused of unfair practices - report

The problems in the fashion industry are well known. What is less often discussed, however, is the role that global fashion brands’ purchasing practices play in contributing to poor working conditions.  

Until now. 

Together with researchers from the University of Aberdeen, Transform Trade conducted a survey of 1,000 Bangladeshi factories to uncover the impact of brands’ buying practices on factories and their workers. 

The research study ‘Impact of Global Clothing Retailers’ Unfair Practices on Bangladeshi Suppliers During COVID-19’, contains numerous reports that major fashion brands are paying Bangladeshi factories below the cost of production, with nearly one in five factories struggling to pay their workers the Bangladeshi minimum wage of £2.30 a day (which campaigners say is itself not enough to live on). 

Some of the most recognisable brands in the world including H&M, Gap, Next, Primark and Zara were named by factories as treating them unfairly. 

When retailers treat suppliers badly by breaching previously arranged terms, it is workers who suffer. If a retailer cancels orders, fails to pay the agreed amount, or delays payments, the supplier has to cut costs some other way, usually at the expense of the least powerful in the supply chain - the workers. Reports of workers being fired and rehired on worse pay and conditions, bullying and unpaid overtime are the predictable result. 

And according to the survey, it’s the bigger brands, buying from multiple factories, which are the worst culprits when it comes to unfair purchasing practices.

Fashion brands are making huge profits while those who make the garments remain vulnerable. This cannot continue. 

The solution is simple 

Voluntary agreements don’t work. 12 of the brands cited in the report are members of the Ethical Trading Initiative. What’s needed is accountability, enforcement and fines.  

We need a fashion watchdog to regulate UK garment retailers, along the same lines as the existing supermarket watchdog, which has slashed rates of abuse since it was brought in in 2013.  

Only a fashion watchdog will deter the unacceptable purchasing practices of powerful high street brands in the same way as the supermarket watchdog has protected food suppliers. Only when suppliers are able to plan ahead, with confidence that they will earn as expected, can they deliver good working conditions for their workers. 

Bangladesh is the second largest garments exporter in the world, providing millions of garments to the UK market each year. In Bangladesh and across the world, the fashion industry provides employment for millions of workers, most of them women – but all too often, they face unacceptable working conditions.  

Change is needed – and it starts with the UK Government setting up a fashion watchdog so that factories and workers are treated fairly.

We’re building a record of support for MPs who are supportive of the need for a fashion watchdog. See whether your MP supports a fashion watchdog, and if not, take action today.