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Chinese fast fashion retailer Shein says that it has found two cases of child labor in its supply chain, dated to 2023.
According to a social impact report released by Shein in August, the company's auditors discovered that two of its suppliers had used child labor between Q1 and Q3 of 2023. Shein said that it suspended orders from the manufacturers, and gave them 30 days to "remediate their offenses." That included ending all contracts with underage workers, paying any outstanding wages, arranging medical checkups, and returning the children to their parents or guardians as needed. The company also said that it instructed the offending manufacturers to strengthen their screening processes for hiring.
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Shein's report also found that 0.5% of suppliers it audited weren't paying workers the local minimum wage, or were delaying wage payments. In one case, a supplier in Guangzhou hadn't paid some of its workers for the entire month of April due to "cash flow problems." Shein eventually had the supplier sign an agreement to pay all outstanding wages by June 12.
Shein has frequently been linked to allegations of forced labor and poor working conditions across its various suppliers. In April of 2023, a U.S. congressional commission found that employees at multiple Shein factories had worked 18-hour days with no overtime pay, and one day off a month. Shein had also failed to declare that it had sourced cotton from Xinjiang, a region in China reputed for its use of forced labor.
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