Shein, the Chinese online fast fashion retailer, has admitted breaching local working regulations at two of its sites, promising to invest £12.2mln to improve standards.
An independent investigation, launched after allegations of labour abuse following an undercover Channel 4 documentary, found that employees at two of its Chinese sites were working longer hours than local rules allowed.
Staff at one site were working 13-and-a-half hour days with at least three days off a month, according to the Standard newspaper, while employees at the second site were working 12-and-a-half hours with no fixed timetable for days off.
Shein said it has cut orders from manufacturers that operate the sites until 31 December 2022 to fix practices or face further action.
Channel 4’s ‘Untold: Inside the Shein Machine’ documentary showed employees on 18-hour work days for seven days a week, being paid 3p per item produced.
Staff were allowed only one day off per month, the documentary revealed, and any mistakes in production were hit with a heavy fine of £12, which was a quarter of an average worker's salary.
Shein said that while its own investigation showed practices to be “significantly less than claimed in the documentary, they are still higher than local regulations permit.”
Shein, which was founded by American-born entrepreneur Chris Xu and is based in China but focused exclusively overseas, was valued at £76.5bn after an investment round earlier this year and amid reports over the past three years that an IPO is in the works.