Retailers 'split' over workers

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More than half of retailers surveyed said they had no plans to look into garment employees' "poverty wages", according to campaign group Labour Behind the Label.

The annual Let's Clean Up Fashion report, released ahead of London Fashion Week, criticised conditions for overseas workers as British retailers launched a cut-price war over cheap school uniforms.

Research had also found staff were paid 5p an hour for working 80-hour weeks making clothes in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

The report said garment workers were the "linchpins" of an industry worth £36 billion annually in the UK alone.

Monsoon, Accessorize, Gap, Marks & Spencer, Next and New Look are named the only retailers with "detailed projects" to improve pay for overseas workers.

Another five - Sainsbury's, Asda, Primark, Tesco and the Arcadia group - had not provided concrete information but "claim they will do something", the report said.

Labour Behind the Label and anti-poverty charity War on Want are calling on the Government to bring in legislation to make UK firms enforce ethical labour standards throughout their supply chains.

They are calling on all firms to pay a living wage to allow workers and their families to meet their essential needs.

Martin Hearson, the report's author, said: "The fashion industry is split between companies that recognise the problem of poverty wages and are taking action to fix it, and those that aren't. As that gap widens, the do-nothing brands are going to be left further and further behind."