The online clothing retailer Boohoo makes its employees work in one of its British warehouses in grueling and dangerous conditions for their health, says an article from Times published this Wednesday. According to a journalist from the daily who worked undercover for a month, the employees of the Burnley warehouse (north-west of England) have to collect 130 articles per hour by walking a lot.
The reporter says he walked about 20 kilometers without a break to sit down during an eleven-hour work session, and still only achieved 70% of his goals. The temperature in the warehouse frequently reached 32 degrees at night during the summer, he reports.
“Prison”, “slaves”, “don’t work there”
Employees receive their instructions and the location of items via a bulky black terminal attached to their wrist, thanks to which they are also monitored by their superiors, continues the article in the British daily.
“Prison”, “slaves”, “don’t work there”, read graffiti in the warehouse, photographed and printed in the article of the Times, which also describes numerous employee emergency room stays, fainting spells, and more. Consequence: the staff turnover rate is high.
Two years ago, Boohoo had already been accused of selling clothes made in Pakistan but also in the center of the United Kingdom, in Leicester, by underpaid workers. But that didn’t stop Boohoo’s CEO from signing up with reality star Kourtney Kardashian. He was later granted a bonus of £1.3million, while employees are paid £11 per hour, reports the Times.
Contacted by AFP on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Boohoo, a firm that says it employs more than 5,000 people worldwide, believes that the article in the Times ‘does not reflect the actual working environment at our Burnley warehouse’. At 11 pounds per hour, he points out that the wages are higher than the so-called minimum subsistence wage, which is not compulsory but recommended in the United Kingdom.