![\"Shein](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2023-11\/2npl6vsg_shein_625x300_28_November_23.jpeg\"\/ "\\"Shein")
<\/div>\nShein is an online shopping retailer founded in 2008.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Over a year after Chinese fast-fashion company Shein promised to tackle overwork and excessive work hours in its supply chain, a new report claims that the firm still has a problem. According to an investigation by Public Eye, a Swiss human rights advocacy group that first highlighted the alleged abuse in the Chinese company in 2021, workers in some factories supplying Shein are still working 75-hour weeks. The probe found that \u201cillegal working hours and piecework wages remain a typical feature of the everyday lives of the workers interviewed\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 75-hour weeks that we found out about two years ago still seem to be common at Shein,\u201d the Swiss organisation<\/a> said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Public Eye interviewed 13 employees at six factories in Guangzhou in 2023. It found that staff worked an average of 12 hours a day, excluding lunch and dinner breaks, and usually for six or seven days a week. \u201cShein does not reveal its suppliers,\u201d the organisation said in its report. However, it added that it established that factories were Shein suppliers through interviewees’ responses as well as the presence of Shein products.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the investigation, apart from long working hours, the workers’ wages had hardly changed since the 2021 report. The wages fluctuate between 6,000 and 10,000 yuan per month, which is equivalent to US $829 and $1,382. However, after deducting overtime pay, wages fell to about 2,400 ($332) a month. That’s well below the 6,512 yuan ($900) Public Eye says is a living wage in China, citing calculations by campaign group the Asia Floor Wage Alliance.<\/p>\n \u201cI work every day from 8 in the morning to 10.30 at night and take one day off each month. I can’t afford any more days off because it costs too much,\u201d one worker told the organisation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shien, on the other hand, told Public Eye that \u201clong working hours are a well-known, long-term issue\u201d. Notably, the company’s Code of Conduct for its suppliers states that workers should not work longer than 60 hours a week, including overtime.\u00a0<\/p>\n Moreover, interviewees claimed that if they made a mistake, they would have to make any alterations to the clothes unpaid. They also claimed to have noticed a rise in surveillance cameras in the factories and said they believed the footage was sent to Shein in real time so regulations could be enforced. Public Eye also said it observed toddlers being babysat in the factories, teenagers packaging items and a smoking ban not being enforced.<\/p>\n However, in a statement to CNN<\/em><\/a>, the company said that it does \u201cnot recognise many of the allegations in (Public Eye) report.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Public Eye report is based on a sample of 13 interviewees and, though all voices in our supply chain are important, this small sample size should be seen in the context of our comprehensive ongoing process to continually improve our supply chain, which involves engaging with thousands of suppliers and workers within the supply chain,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n