Online fashion retailer Boohoo has promised to investigate one of its suppliers in Leicester over claims staff have been made to work for less than minimum wage.
Workers at the factory were paid as little as £3.50 an hour - despite minimum pay for over 25s in the UK being £8.72, The Sunday Times reported.
The site, which signs say belongs to Jaswal Fashions, continued to operate when Leicester was put back into lockdown last week - and it is alleged that appropriate safety measures had not been put in place.
The fast fashion retailer told investors on Monday that it will end relationships with any supplier it finds to have broken its code of conduct, but shares plummeted during early trading.
In a statement to the stock market, Boohoo said: "We will not hesitate to immediately terminate relationships with any supplier who is found not to be acting within both the letter and spirit of our supplier code of conduct.
"This includes very clear expectations on transparency about second-tier suppliers."
The firm said it was "very grateful" the alleged conditions had come to light and branded them "totally unacceptable".
Yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he had "significant" concerns about the factory's operations after the claims came to light.
He told Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday the government would issue "very significant fines" and threatened to close down businesses that do not comply with COVID-19 regulations.
There have been fears that online retailers have been risking the further spread of the virus by not getting workers to practice social distancing and follow hygiene rules.
Sarah Riding, partner specialising in retail supply chain management at law firm Gowling WLG, said: "The fact that there are not pro-active checks in place already at Boohoo is disappointing, given their prominent place in the market and claims of high ethical commercial standards.
"Their immediate steps to investigate should have already been built into their core supply chain management process and robust continual audits on their suppliers should have been in place."
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Boohoo also owns the online brands Pretty Little Thing, Nasty Gal and MissPap and was last year valued at £856.9m.
Mahmud Kamani, who founded the company in 2006, is now a billionaire.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiamh0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2Jvb2hvby10by1pbnZlc3RpZ2F0ZS1zdXBwbGllci1vdmVyLWNsYWltLWl0LXBhaWQtd29ya2Vycy0zLTUwLWFuLWhvdXItMTIwMjIyNjjSAW5odHRwczovL25ld3Muc2t5LmNvbS9zdG9yeS9hbXAvYm9vaG9vLXRvLWludmVzdGlnYXRlLXN1cHBsaWVyLW92ZXItY2xhaW0taXQtcGFpZC13b3JrZXJzLTMtNTAtYW4taG91ci0xMjAyMjI2OA?oc=5
2020-07-06 13:52:30Z
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