Low-cost fast fashion brands are experiencing a boom in business as Australians look for cheaper consumer goods, but international organisations are warning companies may be cutting costs by using forced labour. Anti-slavery groups have raised concerns about the practices of fast fashion retailers such as Shein and Temu, calling for Australia to follow the lead of the United States and European Union and ban imports of goods manufactured with poor human rights practices. Clothing and accessories company Shein now has close to 800,000 shoppers each month in Australia and is on track to reach a billion dollars in annual sales, according to Roy Morgan research, while consumer goods store Temu has more than 1.
2 million Australian shoppers, amassing an estimated $1.3 billion in annual sales. Shein is the 14th most downloaded free application on Apple’s Australian app store.
Credit: Getty US politicians and advocates called for the US Department of Homeland Security to investigate Shein and Temu in April. A US congressional report last June found there was an extremely high risk that Temu’s supply chains use forced labour and that Shein and Temu dodged import taxes and provided minimal information about the products and the companies involved. Shein was accused in 2021 of underpaying its workers and forcing them to work up to 16 hours a day, six or seven days a week by Swiss Advocacy group Public Eye prompting it to invest $15 million to improve worker conditions.
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