by Felicity Collier

EXPLOITED British workers are being paid less than half the minimum wage in textile factories for big high street and online fashion brands, Channel 4’s Dispatches revealed last night.

Footage for Undercover: Britain’s Cheap Clothes was shot by an undercover reporter who was paid £3 an hour to press and pack dresses at Fashion Square Ltd in Leicester, which makes clothes for high street chain River Island.

The boss was filmed saying that he could not afford to pay higher wages because he needed “to compete with China and Bangladesh.”

When challenged by the Dispatches team, Fashion Square denied that workers were paid below the so-called national living wage (NLW), which is £7.20 per hour.

River Island said the firm had been removed from its approved factory list in February last year after two failed audits. The retailer, which made an operating profit of £144 million in 2014, is signed up to the Ethical Trading Initiative, pledging that all workers in its supply chain should be paid the NLW.

Other Leicester factories filmed included those which produce clothes for New Look and online shops BooHoo and Missguided. Workers were reported to be getting between £3.25 and £3.50 per hour.

Labour MP Jack Dromey said the “shocking revelations reveal the growing insecurity in the world of work.”

He added: “The government have a duty to ensure that workers are not denied basic rights at work — a minimum wage, sick pay and parental leave — yet they are failing in that duty.

“The Prime Minister claims to be the champion of the working class.

“But she has presided over employer scandals from fashion retailers to Sports Direct, while many in her party intend to use Brexit to rob workers of their rights by stealth.”

Civil Service union PCS’s general secretary Mark Serwotka said Britain could see “a bonanza for rogue employers” if plans to close all but a dozen of HM Revenue and Customs 170 offices go ahead.

He said: “It is dangerous and wrong to put so many businesses out of reach, and these plans must be halted immediately so MPs and the public can be consulted and have their say.”

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