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Primark are again on the receiving end of allegations relating to labour abuses in their supply chain, this time the factory involved is in the UK.  The Observer, BBC and News of the World this weekend alleged that illegal immigrants are being paid just over half the minimum wage in a Manchester-based garment firm supplying Primark. The supplier, TNS Knitwear, may have breached a number of key employment and immigration laws. Illegal Pakistani, Afghan and Indian migrant workers were allegedly being paid £3 an hour and working 12-hour days, seven days a week. TNS Knitwear supplies an estimated 20,000 garments to Primark every week. Undercover footage of the factory is available to view on the BBC website and Lucy Siegle in the Guardian has started a blog on the scandal. These allegations occur only six months after outsourcing and child labour was found in Primark’s Indian supply chain.

In response to the allegations, Primark have announced they are conducting an internal investigation into employment conditions at TNS Knitwear. Unusually, they have also published audits conducted in April and December 2008, along with the Corrective and Preventative Action Plan, on their ethicalprimark.com website.

In an agreement with the Ethical Trading Initiative Primark, members of the ETI, will remove all references to the ETI from its stores and its corporate website. An ETI spokesperson stated “We are horrified at the allegations of abuses exposed by this investigation… First, we have met with Primark and demanded that it provides us with a prompt, full and frank response to the allegations. Where they are substantiated, the company has a clear obligation to work with the suppliers concerned to put things right.  Second, we have immediately launched a formal inquiry to establish whether or not there is a systematic failure on Primark’s part to implement the ETI base code. If such a failure were established, this would be grounds for formal sanctions.”

Although Impactt does not have access to the specific findings of this investigation, our experience of working with garment and food suppliers in the UK has raised significant numbers of labour abuses.    In 22 UK audits carried out between August 2007 and July 2008, 33% of sites employed casual and temporary workers, who are more vulnerable to abuse , 35% of sites were working more than 60 hours per week (the limit set in the ETI base code) and 26% of sites failed to pay the minimum wage.

UK-based suppliers perform an important role filling shortfalls in orders and producing garments for the UK market at shorter lead times than firms based overseas. However, they are under tremendous pressure to deliver product at short notice and at competitive prices. This pressure can lead to workers’ wages being squeezed and factories working long hours. Impactt often finds that workers being paid poor wages are forced to work excessive hours in order to make ends meet.

UK-based suppliers are often assumed to be at low risk of breaching labour standards; the UK is a developed country with extensive employment regulations and protection for workers.  This case illustrates that this assumption may not be well-founded; poor labour standards and exploitation of workers not only occurs in China, India and the developing world they can happen in our own back yard.

Every time Primark and the other devils make a slip up it’s a boost for ethical fashion. It’s the equivalent of some poor chap eating a cheap sausage and finding evidence that it really isn’t as it seems.

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I am a kintwear factory worker. As the crisis sweep UK. I ‘m really worried about my future