Fashion Enter at The House of Lords
Yesterday, 20th November, our CEO Jenny Holloway was invited to take part at the House of Lords Roundtable event entitled: ‘A Good Look: Fashion, Modern Slavery & Transparency’. Hosted by Baroness Young of Hornsey, the discussion examined how brands can make the most of legislation and collaborate to achieve best outcomes.

Jenny comments: “It was genuinely interesting to hear about all the positive steps forward that have been made with meetings, policies, processes and procedures regarding Modern Slavery within the fashion industry. “However, I can clearly remember the days of M&S capacity planning their production. They called in their suppliers that all had factories in the UK. Do you think these factories were paying cash to their workforce? Did slave labour apply then? No – categorically not. So why is it an issue now? Is it because factories are too scared to register their workforce for PAYE as there is an inconsistency in work given to factories? If they can’t plan ahead on production they can’t commit to labour. The machinists themselves don’t always want to come off benefits either as it’s a nightmare to claim them again so they accept lower rates of pay. This is a trust issue and all the policies in the world doesn’t make a factory work – flow makes a factory work.”
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