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Article

17 May 2016

Author:
James Mills, Sun

Sri Lanka: Sweatshop ‘slaves’ earning just 44p an hour making ‘empowering’ Beyonce clobber

BEYONCE’S new high street sportswear range for Topshop is made using sweat shop labour earning just £4.30 a day...while Topshop claims it “empowers women through sport”...poverty-stricken seamstresses making some of the clothes in the MAS Holdings ­factory in Sri Lanka earn just £4.30 a day...The workers, mostly young women from poor rural villages, can only afford to live in boarding houses and work more than 60 hours a week to make ends meet...Most are reluctant to speak out for fear of losing their jobs...Campaigners insist the women are being exploited and treated like slaves...Their three-storey boarding house has a strict 10.30pm curfew after which the gates are locked, mainly for their own safety...The Arcadia group, which owns Topshop, claims it enforces a “code of conduct” on suppliers.