On Monday, October 17, Channel 4 released ‘Untold: Inside the Shein Machine’, an undercover investigative documentary that brings to light the working and payment conditions of the loan company’s subcontractors. wear Chinese Shein.
The documentary of Channel 4, Untold: Inside the Shein Machine, broadcast on October 17 on the British television channel, finally made it possible to learn more about the working conditions of the Chinese super fast fashion giant’s subcontractors shein. In fact, with the low prices charged by the brand created in 2008 (7.50 euros on average according to TF1) and the astronomical quantities of pieces produced each day (5 to 10,000 new items daily, again depending on TF1), it was obvious that something was wrong with the pure-player’s clothing production line. So to find out what was behind Shein’s success, a journalist made sure toinfiltrate a contract factory of the brand and joined one of its production teams. During this 47-minute documentary produced by Zandland, the journalist explains that she found evidence of thehuman and wage exploitation employees of this factory. According to her, employees only haveone day off per month and they would happen to work 18 hours a day, from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. the following morning. That’s six hours of daily power cuts! Barely time to recover from the exhausting day of the day before that we already have to start over, depriving the employees of moments to indulge in elementary activities such as washing their hair – an employee has no other choice than to do it during his lunch break. One could therefore believe that the salary received at the end of the month would be proportional to the inhuman hours suffered by the employees, but this is not the case. In this factory, workers would earn 4,000 yuan per monthwhich is the equivalent of 560 euros. And that’s not all: according to the Channel 4 journalist, if employees make the slightest mistake, they will lose two-thirds of their daily wage!
What was Shein’s reaction?
In view of the Channel 4 revelations, it is difficult to doubt that the working conditions of the companies from which Shein subtracts its production violate Chinese labor laws. A Shein spokesperson told the news site Business Insider : “We are extremely concerned about claims presented by Channel 4, which would violate the code of conduct accepted by each supplier of Shein. Any breach of this code will be addressed without delay, and we will terminate partnerships that do not meet our standards. ” At the same time, on the day of the documentary’s release, Shein launched a clothing resale platform in the USA. Based on the principle of Vinted, this application aims to increase the loyalty of the brand’s customers who will be able to resell their clothes without having to leave the Shein site. A clumsy attempt to greenwashing, since the brand is held responsible for serious damage to the environment. Not sure that’s enough.