Primark caught again for lying

Last year, I wrote about the BBC exposing the lies of Primark, a UK high street retailer and how there are similar lying organisations in Cambodia.

At that time, Primark apologised and sacked three of its suppliers. Well, here they are again, up to their old tricks. This time the BBC caught a Primark supplier paying immigrant workers in the UK, 40 per cent less than the minimum wage.

The supplier is TNS Knitwear Ltd, based in a former Victorian mill in Manchester, which supplies clothing to several high street fashion chains.

A BBC reporter went undercover and was paid £3.50 an hour, and not £5.73 an hour, which is what the law dictates and what Primark's own code of conduct promises: that workers are paid a living wage. In addition, workers had to work in the bitter cold in their coats as TNS Knitwear provided no heating.

"This is the importation of third world working conditions into Europe and in this case into the UK," Neil Kearney, of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation told the BBC. "There's no such thing as cheap clothing; somebody has to pay and in this case it's the workers in Manchester who pay."

Following this latest BBC expose, Primark was forced by ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative) to remove its branding from Primark stores and websites.

You can read the full report and watch the programme on the BBC's website here and you can click here to find out more about Primark.