An investigation by The Guardian has found that workers at a Pakistani factory which supplies Boohoo earn as little as 29p an hour.
Workers at two factories in the city of Faisalabad told The Guardian they were paid well below the legal monthly wage limit for unskilled workers, equating to around £47 a month.
The Guardian also recorded documentary, video and photographic evidence to support claims of potential safety issues, including fire risks.
Insiders told the investigation that workers would sometimes do 24-hour shifts to produce clothes for western markets.
After The Guardian approached Boohoo about the findings, the company suspended a supplier, JD Fashion Ltd, and a factory, AH Fashion, from its supply chain while it investigated the claims.
Another factory, Madina Gloves, denied claims that it had recently been making clothes for Boohoo and said claims of low pay and mistreatment of workers were “totally wrong”.
AH Fashion said workers were always paid and treated fairly.
Boohoo said it “will not tolerate any instance of mistreatment or underpayment of garment workers”.
The retailer told The Guardian it was unaware of its clothes being made at Madina Gloves and that AH Fashion was not on its approved supplier list for JD Fashion – a Preston-based intermediary that supplies Boohoo – for an order delivered to the UK on 11 December.
Boohoo said: “As part of our international compliance programme, AH Fashion received a SMETA [Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit] audit in November 2020, where no issues of this nature were found, so these allegations are extremely concerning,” it said.
“Independent compliance and auditing specialists Bureau Veritas are on the ground in Faisalabad and we have instructed them to immediately investigate these claims … Any supplier who does not treat their workers with the respect they deserve has no place in the Boohoo supply chain.”
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