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Workers in Mauritius producing clothes for the UK high street who have spoken out about serious violations of their rights need your support today.
Cambridge P&P hit the shops!
On 12 August the Sunday Times revealed the appalling conditions faced by migrant workers in Mauritius producing clothing for the Arcadia Group (which includes TopShop, Miss Selfridge, and Dorothy Perkins). Workers told the paper that they were working 70 hours a week for as little as 22p per hour, about 40% below the average local wage. Living conditions for the workers, mostly from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and China, are overcrowded with up to 50 workers in a dormitory and only 10 toilets for over 900 workers. Attempts to speak out about these conditions have led not only to dismissal but deportation.
“They took us to the airport and left us there for three days. We could not travel. We had no tickets. Armed gunmen … came and threatened us…. We were then kept in a camp [until] 174 of us were given tickets and told to leave”. Amali, one of the Sri Lankan workers deported after the strike.
Workers described the conditions at two factories, including one producing T-shirts for TopShop’s flagship Kate Moss range. Most of the workers interviewed at Star Knitwear and Compagnie Mauricienne de Textile (CMT) are migrant workers, recruited by agents in their home countries with a promise of higher wages, stable contracts and a better standard of living than they could find at home. Once there they find the reality is very different: low salaries, long hours and crowded, unhygienic living conditions.
At the other end of this chain sit Mr Green and Ms Moss. Philip Green, the owner of Arcadia Group which includes TopShop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge, is one of Britain’s richest men, worth nearly £5 billion. Kate Moss was paid £5 million to design the clothes now being stitched together by some of the workers interviewed by the paper.
Unlike most high street stores, Arcadia still hasn’t signed up to the Ethical Trading Initiative - a vital first step if it is serious about addressing problems in its supply chain.
The Arcadia Group can and should to do more to ensure the workers at the sharp end of their supply chains are getting a fairer slice of the pie. These workers need you to take action and demand that workers producing for Arcadia in Mauritius and elsewhere get a better deal.
Take action now to demand Arcadia does more to ensure workers in its supplier factories in Mauritius and elsewhere get a fairer deal.
Email Arcadia now, and ask them to clean up their act.
Read the Sunday Times article Revealed: Topshop clothes made with ‘slave labour’ and also The billionaire and the sweatshops
