European sweatshops supply major brands
Clothes factories supplying major brands pay poverty wages and provide dangerous working conditions across Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, according to a report by the Clean Clothes Campaign. The report claims that workers in Ukraine earn €89 ($103) per month including overtime, equivalent to a fifth of the “living wage”, and that approximately 1.7 million workers in the region’s garment sector live in poverty. The research also reveals that forced overtime is widespread, along with exposure to heat and chemicals. Abuse by managers is also common, and skilled female workers are particularly badly paid.

AMSTERDAM – Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) has published a report claiming that the garment and apparel industry is host to poverty wages and sweatshops across Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. CCC says the factories are customers of major fashion brands such as Benetton, Espirit, GEOX, Triumph and Vera Moda and that many workers in Ukraine earn EUR89 per month, despite overtime and the ‘living wage’ being five times that.