Secrets of the ‘Shein village’ where KIDS were caught working in sweat shops… & why you should think twice about returns

WITH ultra-cheap prices, special offers served on a colourful spinning wheel and regular free gifts, it’s no wonder Shein has become one of the world’s most popular brands.

The Chinese fast-fashion firm reported a staggering £1.5billion in sales last year, up 40 per cent, and is now awaiting sign-off to list itself on the London Stock Exchange for an estimated £50billion.

But beneath the bargains and tempting deals are deeply worrying concerns – from children being forced to work to allegations of modern slavery and labour rights abuses. 

Despite constant denials from Shein, the behemoth has again been accused of “an extreme form of exploitation” by one charity after yet more worrying claims about conditions emerged.

During the BBC’s visit to Panyu, known as “Shein village” due to the excess of factories there, workers claimed to take zero days off, slave away for 75 hours-plus a week and receive just £265 a month for the displeasure.

“It’s clear that it’s illegal and it violates basic human rights. It’s an extreme form of exploitation and this needs to be visible,” said David Hachfield, of the Asia Floor Wage Alliance.

This is just the latest damning claim about Shein, whose popularity has exploded since Covid, in part thanks to A-list celebrity endorsements and support from the likes of Kim and Khloe Kardashian, Katy Perry, Rita Ora, Nick Jonas, and Love Islander Arabella Chi. 

Last week, Shein was accused of having “bordered on contempt” for refusing to answer questions about their practices by MPs, who called them “ridiculous” after being hauled before a UK parliamentary committee.

There the Anti-Slavery Commissioner Eleanor Lyons said she didn’t think Shein was “being transparent about what is going on in their supply chains” nor was she convinced they were “truly looking into the potential human rights violations”. 

For years, Shein has faced claims it is too cheap to be true, but in spite of that it remains hugely popular and was even the second-most downloaded app in the UK last year.

More than 2,000 items are added each day to the website but behind that, there’s a high price for workers – including claims they work get paid as little as two pence per item.

That emerged in the 2022 Channel 4 documentary Untold: Inside The Shein Machine, which found some workers were slogging away for 17 hours a day and were fined three-quarters of their already measly wages for mistakes.

‘Exploited’

An undercover reporter was told she would get “one day off a month” and that there was “no such thing as Sundays here” while working at a factory, which produced items for Shein, in Guangzhou.

Known as Mei, not her real name, she revealed employees were expected to sew a minimum of 500 garments per shift and was told by a colleague that they “work at least 17 to 18 hours a day”.

That contravenes Chinese law and Shein’s code of practice that suggests staff should work 40 hours a week, and is just one example of the company’s alleged disregard for labour rights.

Mei was told her first month’s wages – roughly workers are paid £16.50 plus 2p per item of clothing per day – would be withheld for the first month.

If they found any mistakes they would deduct £12, the equivalent of three-quarters of her daily wages, and if she didn’t meet the 500 item minimum she would get the minuscule ‘per item bonus’.

Worse so, in another factory, one worker claimed that “if it’s (items) returned, I don’t get paid” and said they didn’t have a single day off in the previous month. 

Slave labour, sweatshops, and trade tricks are the dirty secrets behind Shein’s success.

Marco Rubio, US politician

Mei said: “The factory has a very inhuman system. If you make a mistake, for example, cut the wrong thing or make the wrong packaging, the factory will give you a penalty.

“They still exploit the workers like dogs. It’s worse than years ago.”

She described the practices as “unreasonable”, citing there was “no rest at all” and that she felt “really tired, exhausted, really exhausted” from the hours. 

Chillingly, workers have so little free time that the factories who supply clothing to Shein sometimes offer on-site accommodation for workers to rest between their excessively long shifts.

But Mei says the majority are uninhabitable, explaining: “There was no hot water; I had to have cold showers. I’ve never been so miserable. The walls are covered in mould. The toilet wasn’t working.”

Concerning labels

Concerningly, that same year, several TikTok videos emerged that alleged struggling Shein workers were making pleas for help on clothing labels.  

Stitches on the tags were messages including “Help Me”, “SOS” and “I have dental pain” – as well as the words “Need your help” hidden among washing instructions.

Fact-checking site Snopes has suggested the latter could be an oddly worded translation for Chinese instructions but it is not fully clear.

Child labour

In August last year, Shein revealed it had found two cases of child labour in their supply chain and temporarily suspended orders from the factories until they rooted out the problem.

However, they decided to “resume business” with them after – despite the company admitting the child workers had to be ‘repatriated’ to parents or legal guardians. 

Shein’s statement read: “Both cases were resolved swiftly, with remediation steps including terminating contracts with underage employees, ensuring the payment of any outstanding wages, arranging medical checkups and facilitating repatriation to parents or legal guardians as needed.”

The shocking admission in Shein’s 2023 Sustainability Report so infuriated US politician Marco Rubio that he wrote to then-UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt warning him of “grave ethic concerns” and the firm’s “deep ties to the People’s Republic of China”.

You’ve given us almost zero confidence in the integrity of your supply chains. You can’t even tell us what your products are made from. 

Liam Byrne MP, for Labour

Rubio, a Republican, Trump ally and member of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, added: “Slave labour, sweatshops, and trade tricks are the dirty secrets behind Shein’s success.”

In the years that followed the initial investigation in Shein’s factories, it seems little has changed with workers telling the BBC – who visited 10 factories, in Panyu – that many of them worked 75-hour weeks. 

“We usually work, 10, 11 or 12 hours a day,” said one lady, 49, who refused to be named. 

The basic wage without overtime was £265 per month – or 2,400 yuan, which is 2.7 times lower than what the Asia Floor Wage Alliance say is the needed “living wage”.

Indirectly that, some argue, has led to excessive hours being incentivised, with one worker telling the documentary: “If there are 31 days in a month, I will work 31 days.”

They said they were “paid by the piece” and how much each is worth “depends on how difficult the item is”. 

“Something simple like a t-shirt is one to two yen per piece (11p to 22p) and I can make around a dozen in an hour,” they said. “We earn so little. How is that enough? The cost of living is now so high.”

Shein refused to be interviewed by the BBC but in a statement said they were “committed to ensuring the fair and dignified treatment of all workers within our supply chain”.

They claimed to be investing “tens of millions of dollars in strengthening governance and compliance” and said they strive for the “highest standards of pay” and “ensure compliance” with auditors. 

‘Horrified’ MPs

Now Shein is awaiting approval to be listed on the London Stock Exchange but there could be troubles ahead for the firm after a contentious clash with MPs at a trade committee last week.

The firm’s top lawyer Yinan Zhu refused to give straight answers to questions and instead offered to submit some in writing regarding the supply chain. 

Labour MP Liam Byrne, who chaired the committee, told the firm’s representative that they were all “pretty horrified by the lack of evidence that you have provided”.

He adds: “You’ve given us almost zero confidence in the integrity of your supply chains. You can’t even tell us what your products are made from. 

I don’t think they are being transparent about what is going on in their supply chains

Eleanor Lyons, UK Anti-Slavery Commissioner

“You can’t tell us much about the conditions which workers have to work in, and the reluctance to answer basic questions has frankly bordered on contempt of the committee.”

Shein was accused of “wilful ignorance” in addition to the “risk of the UK potentially becoming a dumping ground for products” unable to enter the UK nor the US due to the poor labour standards.

Byrne expressed concern over the representative being able to answer whether their suppliers used Chinese cotton, from the Xinjiang region, where it’s alleged there are forced labour camps, labour abuses and human rights abuses.

For years it has been claimed that Uyghur Muslims are being made to work against their will in the area, which creates roughly 20 per cent of the world’s cotton supplies, as well as allegedly facing ethnic cleansing.

It followed a Bloomberg report that at least 2 per cent of the cotton used in Shein’s items came from ‘unapproved sources’.

In response to Zhu’s request to submit a written reply to the claim, Byrne said: “This isn’t a trick question, it’s not even a complicated question.”

Lyons, the UK’s Anti-Slavery Commissioner, wasn’t convinced either, stating: “I don’t think they are being transparent about what is going on in their supply chains.

“I’d want to hear more from them and understand that they are truly looking into the potential human rights violations within them. I don’t think they are actually, currently doing that.”

Zhu stated the fashion giant was “compliant with relevant UK laws” but has since refused to comment when approached by multiple news outlets.