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Article

12 Aug 2007

Author:
Claire Newell, Sunday Times [UK]

Revealed: Topshop clothes made with ‘slave labour’

One of Britain’s richest men is profiting from Asian workers paid less than £4 a day to make clothes...for Topshop. Factories supplying Sir Philip Green...employ hundreds of Sri Lankan, Indian and Bangladeshi workers in Mauritius where they labour for up to 12 hours a day, six days a week...The factories [Compagnie Mauricienne de Textile (CMT), Star Knitwear] in Mauritius produce clothes for his firm, Arcadia, which owns Topshop, Topman, Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge...Yesterday Green said he was treating the allegations seriously and would investigate...“I sent inspectors to factories to look at the working conditions, to see that they are not working in sweat-shops, that the working conditions are good. I can’t stand there and count how many hours people are working..." [also refers to Next, Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Asda]