Ultra-fast-fashion: a modern slavery factory?
As you surely know, fashion is not a sector recognized for its good working conditions. Well, ultra-fast-fashion is the same, or even worse.
Shein, for example, works with a large number of small workshops and factories in China that exploit their workers, as revealed by a Public Eye survey: informal workshops without emergency exits, a rhythm of 11 to 12 hours a day, with only one day off per month (i.e. more than 75 hours per week!), piecework pay without a contract, infernal rates… 🤯
And the conditions are also deplorable in European warehouses if we are to believe the example of the parcel return center in Liège where employees describe unattainable quotas and dismissals for not respecting them, not to mention the working conditions of delivery people (not directly employed by the brands, but still exploited).
Shein isn’t the only ultra-fast-fashion brand to receive such criticism. Boohoo has also been singled out for similar reasons in the UK, where employees consider themselves to be subjected to “modern slavery”.
Even the “creative” side is subject to dishonest procedures: for example, to imagine so many new models, ” Shein steals a lot of ideas from little creators explains Marie Nguyen. And it’s not the only one to do it: fashion designers, or even influencers can see their looks appropriated by these big brands who then reproduce them, without paying them 💸
