As consumers have become accustomed to a brave new world of online retail characterized by impossibly low prices, the human cost behind those products has been substantial. The low-price trend has been led by retailers like Shein and Temu, known for inexpensive products that come paired with plenty of caveats. In April of 2023, a report from a U.
S. congressional commission — along with a smattering of other Chinese retailers — to allegations of forced labor and poor working conditions, including claims that employees at multiple Shein factories worked 18-hour days with no overtime pay and just one day off a month. The issue hasn't been limited to just Shein and Temu, either, extending to a larger fashion industry plagued by questionable working conditions.
According to Reuters, an that makes handbags for luxury fashion brand Dior, over allegations that the company had subcontracted its manufacturing out to Chinese suppliers who had . In its ruling, the court also asserted that the poor labor conditions highlighted by this case were endemic to the entire fashion industry at-large. Globally, human rights watchdog group Walk Free estimates that fall into an area of risk that makes them prone to being produced by forced labor annually, driven by a push to keep prices low, and labor costs down.
And despite enthusiastic commitments to keeping supply chains ethical from many major players in the industry, the reality is that these are difficult promises to keep. "The whole notio.
