Workers 'are paid £3 an hour in UK factories supplying high street stores'

High street stores are allegedly selling clothes made in sweatshops by workers who are paid £3 an hour.

An investigation into British factories connected to some of the UK’s most popular fashion chains has uncovered shocking employment practices.

River Island and New Look are reported to have used suppliers that paid less than half the minimum wage, while online retailers Boohoo and Missguided hired suppliers that reportedly routinely broke employment law.

Channel 4’s Dispatches programme used undercover reporters to expose factory conditions.

One boss at Fashion Square Ltd, a textiles firm in Leicester that supplies River Island, blamed competition from China and Bangladesh on him not paying staff the national living wage of £7.20 an hour.


For a 36-hour week, the reporter was paid £110, which works out at £3 an hour.

Investigators worked at another factory producing jumpers for New Look. Despite there being a poster on the wall of the factory floor highlighting the national living wage, the reporter got £3.50 an hour.

The factory had been subcontracting work from another New Look supplier, TS Knitwear, without the chain’s permission.

Bosses also allegedly failed to verify whether staff were legally allowed to work in the UK. On its website, New Look says it protects workers in its supply chain and promotes its ethical work in Bangladesh.

But the Dispatches probe allegedly revealed inconsistencies between the firm’s ethos and its suppliers’ practices. New Look said it stopped using TS Knitwear last year.

Another undercover reporter worked at United Creations Ltd, packing items for Boohoo and Missguided. The reporter was paid £3.25 per hour.