Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
13 January 2009
09:2812693#1
There was an exclusive report on BBC News last night about the very miserable exploitation people are suffering at the hands of wage exploiters. People desperate for some kind of work, people again of foreign origination and desperate, are being paid £3 an hour by people making clothing for national chain store Primark.
These workers are not on foreign soil, not out in the Far East but here in Manchester working in abysmal sweatshops conditions where Health and Safety is some kind of joke. Surrounded by rubbish, paper, boxes of old clothing etc etc... means one spark and they're all dead. Dreadful.
Primark made something like £233 million pound profit last year. I will look up the exact figure later, but they are making it off the back of despair. The owner of the company supplying Primark, is also very rich. Could they distribute a bit more wealth amongst the workers?? of course they could. They can afford it but its profit at any cost and the poor slaves get trampled into the dust for their 7 day week trouble. A 12 hour day brings you £36!
Next time you pick up some very cheap clothing in a store near you remember that somebody somewhere is paying for it to be that cheap.
If businesses cannot afford to pay the minimum wage then let them go out of business. If they can afford it and are not doing it, then throw the full force of the law at them.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
13 January 2009
09:4212694#2
I do not believe in the minimum wage, I believe that it is uncompetitive and counter productive.
That said what you refer to here is wrong PaulB, no question. This is, if accurate, criminal activity and totally unacceptable. Those running this business should be taken to the cleaners and jailed.
Apart from anything else they are able to undercut responsible businesses and drive them out of business.
Guest 656- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,262
13 January 2009
11:1912699#3
Hear, Hear, an absolute disgrace that this is happening in this day and age and a terrible example to our younger generation who use Primark, particularly students who cannot afford to go elswhere
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
13 January 2009
14:1912712#4
Think this is a little unfair on Primark - they are not employing the people, it is a supplier of theirs. Unfortunately i am sure you could investigate a lot of stuff we buy every day and find out there is a lot of this happening.
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
13 January 2009
15:5112717#5
Well no not at all Paul re Primark, it makes uncomfortable reading I know because our daughters and sons are out there in these stores accumulating bargains.. but at what cost. Primark as of yesterday as I understand it, have had to remove their committment to ethical policy out of their windows as a consequence of this latest news. Remember they were in trouble last year for buying in goods from asian sweathshopts that had children working in them round the clock.
We all love a bargain but...think Fairtrade.
BarryW you are a bit of an oul dinosaur on the minimum wage thing.Times have moved on. The Conservatives will not repeal this when they come in to power. Not supporting the minimum wage gives carte blanche to these kinds of situations happening. Lets face it we couldnt penalise these exploiters if we didnt have a legal minimum wage structure in place.
13 January 2009
16:3512719#6
BarryW - no surprises from you then!! Paul - Primark are responsible for checking out their suppliers, full stop.
Unregistered User
13 January 2009
16:5112721#7
It is interesting to see that the people who are ripping off these workers appear to be from there own ethnic groupings.
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
13 January 2009
18:1012732#8
I don't think exploitation worries about ethnicity. BarryW, what they are doing is only illegal because we do have a minimum wage, it exists to prevent this sort of thing. We could of course go back to the old system of gathering around the factory gates to see who will accept a days work for tuppence three farthings.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
13 January 2009
18:2312735#9
You are wrong Chris and PaulB.
The minimum wage is only a part of it there is a range of legislation covering safety at work and working conditions, long established and it is clear that this is all being breached.
Sadly I do not think the minimum wage will be repealed by a new Conservative Government, you are right on that. That does not make the minimum wage right. I am convinced that many wages are being held down by it.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
13 January 2009
20:1012744#10
the minimum wage gives a level playing field to employers as well as meaning that taxpayers do not have to fork out more to top up the incomes of people on 2 quid an hour, as was the case.
primark, i am sure are not the only ones knocking out dodgy stuff, i am not convinced of their guilt either.
i have experience of how these things work, the supplier invites the buyer from the major chain to come down to view his modern facility full of happy asian faces.
this facility is a loss leader, when the order comes in it goes straight to the sweat shop, full up with people that speak little english and have no idea of their rights.
it has been going on for over 20 years in this country, just to my knowledge.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
14 January 2009
09:1712782#11
When I worked for Natwest in their Computer Centre in London, it was just a short walk from many Asian-run sweat-shops (Commercial Street, Whitechapel High Street etc. where other asian families were working.
These clothes shops were/are supplying clothes to many small independants and large chain store business around the country.
Some may have been replaced by East European owners and workers, but the principle is the same and of course many of these workers are tied to these factories as the owner "brought" them over here.
The wider picture is tied to Fairtrade and how much the workers (including children) at the factories in India and other Asian countries are paid.
I know this has been aired on here before, but some of these people can never escape poverty - not on the equivalent of 25 pence a day.
Roger