Shein responds to the revelations of labor exploitation in the documentary ‘Untold’

With a duration of 45 minutes, the production of the British channel Channel 4, the documentary Untold: Inside the Shein Machinehas exposed some things we didn’t know about the Shein online store, to which the company’s executives issued a response.

In the documentary they tell us what happens inside the fashion factory after the journalist Iman Anmrani and her infiltrated reporter Mei entered one of the factories in China and discovered that the employees work more than 18 hours a day, they are paid three cents a piece, they don’t have weekends off and they only take one day off a month. A true labor exploitation!

In addition to this, they are forced to pay fines if they ruin a garment. As if that were not enough, in the scenes of the same documentary we can see that the workers wash their hair during their meal times because they do not have much free time at home to do so.

After the presentation of this program, the clothing brand responded to the accusations in a brief statement, which was sent by its global offices, advising that they would begin an investigation.

We are concerned about the statements made by Channel 4, that would violate the Code of Conduct agreed upon by all SHEIN suppliers.

In addition to this, they assured that they will terminate the contract with companies that do not comply with the standards, since, according to what they say, “Shein’s responsible supply forces its manufacturing suppliers to follow a code of conduct that is based on the conventions of the International Labor Organization and local laws and regulations that govern labor practices and working conditions.”

In addition, they state that they work with independent agencies to conduct unannounced audits at supplier facilities. However, after issuing this statement, the investigation has not begun, since first, the fashion company asked Channel 4 to provide them with the information to find out what happened.

This is not the first time that Shein has found herself in the middle of a controversy, since she previously had problems with the design of a garment, which she plagiarized from a Mexican craft company and which she had to withdraw from her catalog.

The Secretary of Culture of the Government of Mexico defended the authorship of such a design, sending a strong statement about the cultural appropriation that they were making and that, of course, it was not legal. For this reason, Shein responded by stating that they respected all cultures and canceled the sale of the garment.