(CNN) — More than a year after Shein promised to address excessive working hours in its supply chain, a new report suggests the Chinese fast fashion company still has a problem.
Workers at some Shein supplier factories are still working 75 hours a week, according to an investigation by Public Eye, a Swiss human rights group that initially highlighted the alleged abuses in 2021.
“The 75-hour weeks we discovered two years ago still appear to be common at Shein,” the Swiss organization said.
Public Eye last summer interviewed 13 textile workers employed in six factories in Guangzhou, a region in southern China. It found that staff worked an average of 12 hours a day, not counting lunch and dinner breaks, and typically for six or seven days a week.
Public Eye states in its report that Shein does not reveal the identity of its suppliers. The group said it determined the factories were Shein suppliers from the responses of those interviewed, as well as the presence of Shein products.
Public Eye also stated that workers’ salaries had barely changed since its 2021 report. They fluctuated between 6,000 and 10,000 yuan a month ($829 and 1,382). However, after deducting overtime pay, salaries fell to about 2,400 (US$332) a month. This figure is well below the 6,512 yuan ($900) that Public Eye says is a living wage in China, citing calculations by campaign group Asia Floor Wage Alliance.
“I work every day from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and I take one day off a month. I can’t afford any more days off because they cost too much,” one worker told Public Eye.
Shein is an online shopping retailer founded in 2008 that sells its fast fashion clothing at discounted prices around the world.
Shein said in a statement to CNN that he “does not recognize many of the allegations in the (Public Eye) report.”
“Public Eye’s report is based on a sample of 13 interviewees and, while all voices in our supply chain are important, this small sample size should be seen in the context of our ongoing comprehensive process to continually improve our supply chain. of supply, which involves the participation of thousands of suppliers and workers within the supply chain,” he added.
The company said in its statement that it was investing tens of millions of dollars to strengthen the governance and compliance of its suppliers. “We will continue to make substantial investments in these areas.”
In December 2022, Shein announced plans to invest US$15 million to upgrade hundreds of its suppliers’ factories. That announcement came after a documentary aired by the UK’s Channel 4 in which allegations of labor exploitation were made against two of Shein’s suppliers in China, where factory staff allegedly worked 18 hours a day and earned pennies per item. .
“These efforts are already paying off: our regular supplier audits show consistent improvement in performance and compliance by our supplier partners,” Shein stated on Monday.
Public Eye noted that Shein’s code of conduct for suppliers states that staff must work no more than 60 hours per week, including overtime, and must have at least one day off per week.
The advocacy group said it did not return to Nancun, the location of Shein’s headquarters and interviews it conducted for its 2021 investigation, because increased media scrutiny in the area made “the environment too risky”.
Some workers also told investigators they had seen an increase in the number of surveillance cameras in factories, and believed the recordings were being sent to Shein in real time to help the company enforce its rules.
Public Eye investigators also observed young people, aged around 14 or 15, carrying out simple tasks, such as packaging, in some of the factories.
Juliana Liu collaborated in preparing the report.
