Boohoo Denies Forced Labour Accusations as Investigation Looms

By Christina Spicer | March 5, 2021

Category: Labour & Employment

BooHoo responds to allegations of forced labour at a clothing factory

In the face of allegations that it paid Leicester workers illegally low wages, Boohoo doubled down in denying that it uses forced labour at its factory in a report to investors.

This comes after months of allegations that the online retailer paid factory workers in Leicester £3.50 an hour, well under the legal minimum wage of £8.72. The clothes being made were reportedly under the Nasty Gal label, which Boohoo bought back in 2018. In addition, an undercover investigative reporter with the Sunday Times said that the company failed to implement additional social distancing or hygiene measures while he worked there for several days during a local COVID-19 lockdown.

Boohoo now reportedly faces an investigation by US Customs and Border Protection, putting the company’s American market in jeopardy. Sky News broke the exclusive report that Boohoo faces an American import ban over forced labour allegations.

In a statement to investors, the online fashion retailer said it was confident that it had dealt with the allegations and would not be forced from the American market, asserting that Boohoo had not received any information from US Customs and Border protection regarding an investigation, according to the South Wales Argus.

“If the group were to discover any suggestion of modern-day slavery, it would immediately disclose this to the relevant authorities,” says Boohoo’s statement.

“We are confident in the actions that we are taking to ensure that all of our products meet and exceed the CBP (US Customers and Border Protection) criteria on preventing the product of forced labour entering the US (or any of our markets),” it continued. “The group continues to make excellent progress as it works to implement the Review’s recommendations and improve our supply chain in Leicester.”

Advocates told reporters that the online retailer is not doing enough to stop forced labour, however.

“The evidence of Boohoo and forced labour is quite compelling,” Duncan Jepson, who runs Liberty shared, a group that fights modern slavery, told reporters. “I think it will be a wake up call for British institutions about how they’re handling modern slavery enforced labour, particularly in a community like Leicester East.”

Indeed, after The Sunday Times reported on the wage and working conditions at the Leicester factory, the Government set up a task force. In a resulting report, a lawyer labeled Boohoo’s monitoring of its supply chain “inadequate” and attributed the problem to “weak corporate governance.”

Have you been paid less than the minimum mandated wage by Boohoo or another employer? Tell us about your experience in the comment section below.