The factory initially denied the allegations, but later sacked the HR manager and paid the woman 68,250 taka in compensation after pressure from FWF.Ī separate Guardian investigation last month revealed how Spice Girls T-shirts sold to raise money for Comic Relief were made by Bangladeshi women at a different factory earning 35p an hour, who claimed they suffered harassment and were forced to work up to 16 hours a day.Īfter Willoughby reposted the picture of her and Bunton wearing the “girl power” T-shirts recently, the Twitter feed of F= shared the picture and said the items were in “huge demand”.
The woman, who sat on the factory’s anti-harassment committee, said she was robbed of her severance pay and told that if she protested she would be “killed and her body put in a cardboard box”, according to an FWF report. The news comes after the Guardian revealed last month that an “outspoken” worker at the same factory claimed she was beaten up on the orders of management and threatened with murder. The Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), a membership organisation paid by brands to improve working conditions, is investigating after a complaint was received about the workers’ plight at Dird’s factory. These workers are picked intentionally so there is no voice left in a factory to fight against retaliation and form a union.”ĭird insists that the workers who left resigned of their own volition.
In many cases they were union leaders in their respective factories. “The workers that got fired know the law and their rights. Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity, who worked as a child labourer in textile factories, said: “The huge number of dismissals over wage protests shows how workers’ voices have been suppressed and how they are lacking freedom of expression. Meanwhile, some higher-grade factory workers who already earned more than 8,000 taka a month received only small increases, it is claimed. The new minimum wage for the sector is 8,000 taka (£71.34) a month, half what the 16,000 campaigners had been demanding and well short of living wage estimates.
Photograph: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images Bangladeshi garment workers block a road during a demonstration to demand higher wages in Dhaka.
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