An investigation by the campaign group Labour Behind the Label found that T-shirts, dresses and denim skirts – all sold on Amazon by independent British firms – were made by Pakistani workers who are regularly ordered to work seven days a week, for up to 13 hours a day.
The clothes were then sold on Amazon by the UK-based brands A2Z 4 Kids, Chums and Icecoolfashion. None of them responded to the allegations.
The online giant – which is valued at $2.37trn – runs the biggest marketplace platform in the world, with 62 per cent of all its sales now being made by third parties.
But it has been criticised for appearing to duck its responsibility to guard against “forced labour” under this business model, with little scrutiny of how products are being made for its estimated 500,000 third-party fashion sellers.
These items, sold on Amazon by A2Z 4 Kids, were made in one of the accused factories (Screenshot: Labour Behind the Label)Another of the factories produced this dress, sold by Chums (Screenshot: Labour Behind the Label) Icecoolfashion sold this skirt on Amazon, made by another of the Pakistani firms (Screenshot: Labour Behind the Label)The organisation said that Amazon was “distancing itself from the goods sold on the site, and by consequence also distancing itself from the conditions under which those goods are sold”.
Lord Alton, a leading crossbench peer, said he believed the workers involved are trapped in “virtual slave labour.”
Workers reveal tough lives on illegally low pay
None of the three factories in Pakistan investigated by Labour Behind the Label appeared to be paying the local minimum wage of roughly £100 per month for semi-skilled machinists.
Labourers were obliged to work on their days off and stay for several hours of overtime each evening, without being paid double as Pakistani law requires, they said.
The products they were making included a children’s crop top and leggings priced at £12.99 and a pack of three nightdresses for £44.50.
Inside one of the factories in Pakistan where clothes sold on Amazon were made (Photos: Labour Behind the Label)“We can only afford the cheapest possible food,” he said. “No milk, meat, fruits, salad.
A machinist in Karachi said: “In my house I have only three lightbulbs and two fans – nothing more.” He added that he “cannot afford to provide proper education” for his three children.
The other two manufacturers did not respond.
The British firms under the spotlight
Icecoolfashion: Based in Hertfordshire and valued at £50,000, this company sourced clothes from a factory in Karachi. It recently had 179 products for sale on Amazon, including a denim skirt priced at £29.99, but also runs its own website. A2Z 4 Kids: Located in Warrington, Cheshire, it sells children’s clothing, costumes and accessories. It received more than 1,000 shipments from a factory in Faisalabad between May 2023 and April 2024, and had 306 products for sale on Amazon this year. A2Z 4 Kids, worth £2.6m, mainly sells through marketplaces but also operates a website of its own. Chums: Registered in Merseyside, it had 119 items for sale on Amazon at the latest count, and orders products from a factory in Karachi. The company, valued at nearly £10m, has more than 100 UK employees and recorded a turnover of almost £40m in 2023. Chums has a catalogue business, as well as selling on its own website and via other platforms. It is not known how many of the three UK firms’ products on Amazon were sourced from the accused factories, nor which other brands were supplied by the manufacturers. None of the three British brands responded to repeated requests for comment from The i Paper and Labour Behind the Label. One of the workers shared images of their modest bedroom and basic cooking area (Photos: Labour Behind the Label)Anyone owning a registered company can become an Amazon seller by supplying basic identification and contact details, a credit card and a bank account.
Amazon charges all third-party sellers either 75p per item sold or £25 per month, depending on their client plan. Businesses selling clothes must also pay a referral fee of 8 per cent on orders totalling up to £15, with a minimum rate of 25p per item, or 15 per cent for bigger orders.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who held an opulent wedding in Venice with Lauren Sánchez last month, is worth $236bn (Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP)
Amazon’s terms require sellers to agree that no items will be “manufactured, in whole or in part, by child labour or by convict or forced labour”. They must also pledge to abide by all local laws on “working conditions, wages, hours” and Amazon provides an online compliance hub to guide sellers.
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However, Labour Behind the Label argues that because sellers are not required to disclose their supply chains, let alone provide any proof of routine audits or their results, Amazon is unlikely to detect grounds for suspicion in the first place.
Amazon fulfilment centres, such as this one in Dartford, still handle many items sold on its website by third parties (Photo: Jason Alden / Bloomberg via Getty)
Calls for urgent action
Lord Alton, who chairs Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, said that the investigation revealed how the fashion industry “trades on the broken backs of virtual slave labour.”
He called for the UK’s Modern Slavery Act to be strengthened, with goods being labelled with consumer warnings when they are produced in countries “credibly accused of using slave and child labour”.
Lea called for the UK to “urgently” introduce import bans on products that are made using forced labour, similar to protections that already exist in the US.
The factories under investigation are located in Karachi, left, and Faisalabad, right (Photos: Getty) square AMAZON We spent £3.6k a year on Amazon Prime, now we've quit - take that, Jeff Bezos
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It pointed out that the three British sellers under the spotlight also use some of the other leading online marketplace platforms to sell their goods.
“Selling partners who list products in our stores must comply with our Supply Chain Standards, even when they exceed the requirements of applicable law.
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