An investigation in 2015 found that Third World slum-dwellers were being paid 28 pence (35 cents) an hour to make Superdry products.
The Japanese-inspired British clothing brand is currently in the headlines because super-rich co-founder Julian Dunkerton has poured a million pounds into the so-called ‘People’s Vote’ campaign to force another referendum on Brexit.
Announcing the donation in article for the Sunday Times, Dunkerton attempted to win readers over by stressing his status as a self-made man, claiming “I wasn’t going to inherit anything [and] I knew I had to be self-reliant” — although his parents, who sent him to private school, founded Dunkertons Organic Cider and ultimately passed control of the business to him in 2014.
He also boasted that he was “proud to have created good jobs” — but now an investigation from the time the EU referendum was getting underway in late 2015 has resurfaced, highlighting the poor treatment of “exploited factory workers” manufacturing Superdry jackets in India.
Garment checker Ashok Kumar showed reporters from The Sun payslips showing he earned 6,203 rupees (£61.82) for 27 days’ work in the 9-foot square concrete slum swelling he shared with his wife.
This works out at 28 pence an hour for an eight-hour shift — although Kumar said he would often work up to 16 hours to meet targets, and the newspaper indicated that some workers at the Modelama factory in Gurgaon, near New Delhi, were forced to work unpaid overtime as a “penalty” for joining a union.
“People who buy Superdry clothes would be shocked, but if I did not do it for that money, someone else would,” said colleague Rajpal Singh, who estimated his wage at 23 pence an hour after unpaid overtime was taken into account.
“If I tried to do something about it, they would fire me. I feel upset about it,” he added.
“It’s slave labour. Management see us workers as animals,” commented another worker.
A spokesman for Superdry told The Sun that pay at the factory was “above the minimum wage levels
for this part of India” and added that the factory produced only a small percentage of its product line.
“Working with the Ethical Trading Initiative that promotes workers’ rights across the globe, we seek continuous improvement over time in working conditions throughout our supply chain,” he claimed.
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