HIGH street clothes giant Primark is employing firms that use SLAVE labour in sweatshops here in BRITAIN, the News of the World can reveal.
Our five-month joint undercover investigation with the BBC found exhausted illegal immigrants forced to graft 12 hours a day, seven days a week sewing clothes for the cut-price chain in dingy factories.
An undercover reporter received ?133 for working 43 hours at one of Primark's garment suppliers in MANCHESTER, just a mile-and-a-half from the city's flagship store.
That is just ?3 an hour, well below the adult minimum wage of ?5.73.
And on Friday, a News of the World reporter bought a ?10 taupe ladies' cardigan from a Primark store identical to a garment the investigator saw being made.
The revelations make a mockery of Primark's boasts of ethical trading and its claims it regularly checks its key suppliers treat workers fairly.
And they show the grim reality behind the store's hugely profitable strategy of selling bargain versions of high-fashion items.
An industry source said: "These are very grim findings. It's a scandal of slave labour that we thought had been left behind for ever, even in some Third World countries.
"But here it is, under our noses in Britain with workers abused and exploited in the most appalling conditions.
"At the other end we have a company bucking the trend on the High Street, raking in money hand over fist. It's an absolute outrage."
Last night Primark, already under fire for using unethical firms in the Far East, was ordered to REMOVE all references to the Ethical Trading Initiative from its 140 UK stores pending an investigation.
A senior source at the ETI, the industry body set up to promote good practice, told the News of the World: "First Primark was exposed for using firms employing child refugees in the south of India, then ones not paying living wages in Bangladeshi sweatshops and now it's the employment of illegal immigrants in the UK on slightly more than half the minimum wage.
"Some here think Primark's position in the ETI is now untenable."
Today we can reveal Primark, which reported operating profits of ?233million last year, uses contract UK firms that:
* CRAM in illegal Pakistani, Afghan and Indian workers to toil for up to 84 hours a week.
* DODGE tax laws, paying the shattered migrant workers cash in hand, giving them no official status.
* SHAMELESSLY disregard a host of UK employment and business laws.
In our investigation, together with a BBC 10 O'Clock News team, an undercover reporter went behind Primark's glitzy High Street image.
She infiltrated the murky world of backstreet clothing factories in Manchester including TNS Knitwear- Primark's biggest British supplier of knitwear run by Pakistan-born Zahid Sarwar -and its off-shoot Fashion Waves.
Sarwar, 39, has made millions over the last five years from "fast fashion"-keeping stores stocked with cut-price versions of designer gear.
In one factory, the investigator joined dozens of exhausted immigrants crouched over heavy knitting machines in the cramped sweatshop. The buzz of machines all around them was ear-splitting enough.
Adding to the thundering din was the factory owner, angrily shrieking in Urdu, urging his staff to work harder, quicker and better.
The illegal workers-shattered and scared-kept toiling on knitwear ready for Primark's New Year sales.
An insider said: "It's almost unbelievable to think this is happening in Manchester. It could be a stifling hovel in South Asia. But this is how the garments are made that have kept Primark's tills ringing."
Footage shot secretly shows the illegal workers fear they have little choice but to keep working. Many admit to being benefit cheats-on the dole and claiming support while making the Primark clothes.
Deals
They told how they were paid as little as ?3 an hour, for 12-hour days and a relentless seven-day week. From October 1 last year the minimum wage for workers aged 22 and over was set at ?5.73 an hour.
Our source said: "Traditionally it has been too expensive for major UK retailers to source in the UK so companies like Primark have sourced from the Far East.
Out of the blue comes a company, TNS Knitwear, based in the UK who cannot only compete with, but better, the deals being offered by China and India."
Around 60 per cent of TNS Knitwear's business revolves around supplying Primark, and orders have increased in the last five years from 20,000 a YEAR to 20,000 a WEEK.
Our source added: "TNS Knitwear has made a fortune from Primark.
"The lead time in terms of delivering garments from India is up to three or four months.
"TNS Knitwear offers a return time of as little as two weeks.
"The latest trends at the lowest prices in the shortest time possible.
"Burberry or Armani can have a jacket in the shops and within three weeks a strikingly similar version is on the shelves at Primark.
"While the eyes of the world have been on business practices in the Far East, TNS Knitwear have been mopping up business and allegedly breaking the law unchecked.
"This is a system that breeds criminality and exploitation. You don't pay six pounds for a knitted garment without someone suffering or paying the price along the chain."
Primark is headed by Dublin- based Arthur Ryan, who was named the most influential fashion retailer of last year in the Drapers magazine Top 100 Power List.
Famously private, he lives in a handsome ?2million house on Dublin's posh Lansdowne Road. His firm claims to adhere strictly to the Ethical Trading Initiative.
But our investigation could mean it is permanently stripped of its ethical credentials and shunned by the rest of the retail industry.
The store, which boasts of regularly auditing key suppliers, could also face a probe into abuses of the UK's Immigration, Asylum and Nationality laws.
But the biggest blow will be to its reputation in the eyes of the shoppers who fill the stores.
Meanwhile, TNS Knitwear and Fashion Waves, may find themselves under criminal investigation.
TNS Knitwear, also a contractor for Primark's rivals Peacocks, will now be investigated for breaching the National Minimum Wage Act.
If it is found to have employed illegal workers it could face fines of up to ?10,000 for each one, as well as prosecutions for tax evasion and employment law abuses.
Primark was put under pressure by the Ethical Trade Initiative after the News of the World and Panorama found the firm using contractors exploiting child refugees in southern India last year.
Referring to the latest expose of the High Street giant, ETI Chairman Alan Roberts told us: "We are horrified at the allegations of workers' rights abuses exposed by this investigation.
"We will exclude companies from membership where we can be satisfied that there has been a systematic and persistent failure to meet membership obligations, namely to implement a credible and effective ethical trade strategy.
We expect member companies to be open and transparent, acknowledging issues and working to resolve them."
Broken
Mr Roberts added: "We have met with Primark and demanded that they provide us with a prompt, full and frank response to the allegations."
Primark's code of conduct for suppliers includes: "Employment is freely chosen; Working conditions are safe and hygienic; Child labour shall not be used; Living wages are paid; Working hours are not excessive; No discrimination is practised; Regular employment is provided; No inhumane treatment is allowed."
A Primark spokesman said: "Primark was informed this week that one of the UK factories from which it buys some knitwear has allegedly broken a number of UK employment, tax and immigration laws.
"Primark is conducting its own investigation into this. Once that is complete it will decide how to proceed. Meanwhile, Primark has handed all relevant information passed to the company to the relevant enforcement agencies so they may take action."
A TNS Knitwear spokesman said: "Our client has no knowledge of any illegal immigrants working with his company."
Our five-month joint undercover investigation with the BBC found exhausted illegal immigrants forced to graft 12 hours a day, seven days a week sewing clothes for the cut-price chain in dingy factories.
An undercover reporter received ?133 for working 43 hours at one of Primark's garment suppliers in MANCHESTER, just a mile-and-a-half from the city's flagship store.
That is just ?3 an hour, well below the adult minimum wage of ?5.73.
And on Friday, a News of the World reporter bought a ?10 taupe ladies' cardigan from a Primark store identical to a garment the investigator saw being made.
The revelations make a mockery of Primark's boasts of ethical trading and its claims it regularly checks its key suppliers treat workers fairly.
And they show the grim reality behind the store's hugely profitable strategy of selling bargain versions of high-fashion items.
An industry source said: "These are very grim findings. It's a scandal of slave labour that we thought had been left behind for ever, even in some Third World countries.
"But here it is, under our noses in Britain with workers abused and exploited in the most appalling conditions.
"At the other end we have a company bucking the trend on the High Street, raking in money hand over fist. It's an absolute outrage."
Last night Primark, already under fire for using unethical firms in the Far East, was ordered to REMOVE all references to the Ethical Trading Initiative from its 140 UK stores pending an investigation.
A senior source at the ETI, the industry body set up to promote good practice, told the News of the World: "First Primark was exposed for using firms employing child refugees in the south of India, then ones not paying living wages in Bangladeshi sweatshops and now it's the employment of illegal immigrants in the UK on slightly more than half the minimum wage.
"Some here think Primark's position in the ETI is now untenable."
Today we can reveal Primark, which reported operating profits of ?233million last year, uses contract UK firms that:
* CRAM in illegal Pakistani, Afghan and Indian workers to toil for up to 84 hours a week.
* DODGE tax laws, paying the shattered migrant workers cash in hand, giving them no official status.
* SHAMELESSLY disregard a host of UK employment and business laws.
In our investigation, together with a BBC 10 O'Clock News team, an undercover reporter went behind Primark's glitzy High Street image.
She infiltrated the murky world of backstreet clothing factories in Manchester including TNS Knitwear- Primark's biggest British supplier of knitwear run by Pakistan-born Zahid Sarwar -and its off-shoot Fashion Waves.
Sarwar, 39, has made millions over the last five years from "fast fashion"-keeping stores stocked with cut-price versions of designer gear.
In one factory, the investigator joined dozens of exhausted immigrants crouched over heavy knitting machines in the cramped sweatshop. The buzz of machines all around them was ear-splitting enough.
Adding to the thundering din was the factory owner, angrily shrieking in Urdu, urging his staff to work harder, quicker and better.
The illegal workers-shattered and scared-kept toiling on knitwear ready for Primark's New Year sales.
An insider said: "It's almost unbelievable to think this is happening in Manchester. It could be a stifling hovel in South Asia. But this is how the garments are made that have kept Primark's tills ringing."
Footage shot secretly shows the illegal workers fear they have little choice but to keep working. Many admit to being benefit cheats-on the dole and claiming support while making the Primark clothes.
Deals
They told how they were paid as little as ?3 an hour, for 12-hour days and a relentless seven-day week. From October 1 last year the minimum wage for workers aged 22 and over was set at ?5.73 an hour.
Our source said: "Traditionally it has been too expensive for major UK retailers to source in the UK so companies like Primark have sourced from the Far East.
Out of the blue comes a company, TNS Knitwear, based in the UK who cannot only compete with, but better, the deals being offered by China and India."
Around 60 per cent of TNS Knitwear's business revolves around supplying Primark, and orders have increased in the last five years from 20,000 a YEAR to 20,000 a WEEK.
Our source added: "TNS Knitwear has made a fortune from Primark.
"The lead time in terms of delivering garments from India is up to three or four months.
"TNS Knitwear offers a return time of as little as two weeks.
"The latest trends at the lowest prices in the shortest time possible.
"Burberry or Armani can have a jacket in the shops and within three weeks a strikingly similar version is on the shelves at Primark.
"While the eyes of the world have been on business practices in the Far East, TNS Knitwear have been mopping up business and allegedly breaking the law unchecked.
"This is a system that breeds criminality and exploitation. You don't pay six pounds for a knitted garment without someone suffering or paying the price along the chain."
Primark is headed by Dublin- based Arthur Ryan, who was named the most influential fashion retailer of last year in the Drapers magazine Top 100 Power List.
Famously private, he lives in a handsome ?2million house on Dublin's posh Lansdowne Road. His firm claims to adhere strictly to the Ethical Trading Initiative.
But our investigation could mean it is permanently stripped of its ethical credentials and shunned by the rest of the retail industry.
The store, which boasts of regularly auditing key suppliers, could also face a probe into abuses of the UK's Immigration, Asylum and Nationality laws.
But the biggest blow will be to its reputation in the eyes of the shoppers who fill the stores.
Meanwhile, TNS Knitwear and Fashion Waves, may find themselves under criminal investigation.
TNS Knitwear, also a contractor for Primark's rivals Peacocks, will now be investigated for breaching the National Minimum Wage Act.
If it is found to have employed illegal workers it could face fines of up to ?10,000 for each one, as well as prosecutions for tax evasion and employment law abuses.
Primark was put under pressure by the Ethical Trade Initiative after the News of the World and Panorama found the firm using contractors exploiting child refugees in southern India last year.
Referring to the latest expose of the High Street giant, ETI Chairman Alan Roberts told us: "We are horrified at the allegations of workers' rights abuses exposed by this investigation.
"We will exclude companies from membership where we can be satisfied that there has been a systematic and persistent failure to meet membership obligations, namely to implement a credible and effective ethical trade strategy.
We expect member companies to be open and transparent, acknowledging issues and working to resolve them."
Broken
Mr Roberts added: "We have met with Primark and demanded that they provide us with a prompt, full and frank response to the allegations."
Primark's code of conduct for suppliers includes: "Employment is freely chosen; Working conditions are safe and hygienic; Child labour shall not be used; Living wages are paid; Working hours are not excessive; No discrimination is practised; Regular employment is provided; No inhumane treatment is allowed."
A Primark spokesman said: "Primark was informed this week that one of the UK factories from which it buys some knitwear has allegedly broken a number of UK employment, tax and immigration laws.
"Primark is conducting its own investigation into this. Once that is complete it will decide how to proceed. Meanwhile, Primark has handed all relevant information passed to the company to the relevant enforcement agencies so they may take action."
A TNS Knitwear spokesman said: "Our client has no knowledge of any illegal immigrants working with his company."
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