Workers paid as little as 25 pence an hour, forced to work overtime in factories, says London daily report
Britain’s best-known high street stores — Gap, Next and Marks & Spencer — have launched inquiries into the abuse of working regulations at their Indian suppliers, which has resulted in children as young as six being left alone while their parents work in outlets in Delhi and in the satellite township of Gurgaon on its
outskirts.
According to a London Observer investigation, factories are using workers hired through middlemen, and paying them as little as 25 pence an hour, in the case of Gap and Next, and 26 pence
an hour for Marks & Spen-cer. The investigation found staff at their Indian suppliers working up to 16 hours a day.
The three firms have reportedly pledged to end the practice of excessive overtime, which is in flagrant breach of the industry’s ethical trading initiative and Indian labour laws.
The three companies told The Observer that they were totally committed to ethical trading and would not tolerate abuses in their supply chain. They said their auditing processes detected the problems and that they have taken swift action to tackle them. Some workers said they were paid at half the legal overtime rate.
Gap, which uses the same factory as Next, confirmed it had found wage violations and gave its supplier a deadline of Sunday midnight to repay workers who lost out.
Marks & Spencer said it had yet to see evidence to support the wage claims.
Workers claimed that those who refused to work the extra hours had been told to find new jobs, a practice defined under international law as forced labour and outlawed around the world.
The factory has pledged to apologise and reinstate anyone who lost their jobs.
Next said it had found the situation to be “deplorable” and added that the chairman of the Indian company it uses had apologised and promised to make amends, blaming demand for workers at the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi for leaving factories short of staff.
Gap admitted wage and overtime violations and ordered its supplier to reduce working hours to within the legal limits and to refund workers who have been illegally underpaid.
Marks & Spencer admitted its supplier had been operating excessive overtime, but said it had acted quickly to tackle the problem.
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