The Irish value retailer Primark (Pennys in Ireland) is, this week, facing more claims that it has broken UK employment, tax and immigration laws. A clothing supplier to Primark is under investigation for allegedly using illegal workers and paying staff below the minimum wage.
TNS Knitwear, which makes 20,000 garments for Primark every week, has been accused of using illegal immigrants from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan and paying its workers £3 per hour, just over half the minimum wage. According to the shocking report, staff were being pressurised to work 12-hour days, seven days a week.
The investigation has put Primark's ethical standards under the spotlight. The alleged discovery comes just one year after a documentary by the BBC called 'Primark: On the Rack,' showed Indian workers making garments in slum workshops and refugee camps far away from the Primark approved and inspected factories; breaking promises on child labour, working hours and wages.
The Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI), the trade body that monitors Britain's retailers, confirmed it had launched a separate investigation into whether there has been a "systematic failure" by Primark.
Primark said yesterday that it was "extremely concerned about the very serious allegations made against our supplier TNS Knitwear". It said that it had handed material uncovered during the investigation to the UK Border Agency and was conducting its own investigation.
Primark is one of a few companies defying the recession - providing Irish and British shoppers with the latest fashions at rock bottom prices. But with this latest scandal highlighting, yet again, the company's exploitation of workers many of us are falling out of love with the high street style leader.
