Five retailers - Monsoon Accessorise, Gap, Marks and Spencer, Next and New Look - say they plan detailed projects to improve pay, though the latter four linked to harder work. And five more – Sainsbury's, Asda, Primark, Tesco and Arcadia (Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Outfit, Topshop, Topman and Wallis) – claim they will do something, but lack concrete information.
Of the retailers surveyed – those with the biggest market share – ten admitted they had no plans to do anything about garment employees’ poverty wages. These are Clarks, Debenhams, French Connection, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Laura Ashley, Matalan, Mosaic Fashions, River Island and Levi Strauss & Co. But Levi’s has decided against work on a living wage – enough for workers to meet bills for housing, healthcare and their children’s education.
Seven retailers did not respond to the survey or make any information public - Alexon, Bhs, Burberry, Ethel Austin, MK One, Peacocks and Stylo.
This third update to the annual survey Let’s Clean Up Fashion comes from the campaign group Labour Behind the Label before London Fashion Week begins on Sunday (14 September).
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 like French Connection, River Island, Matalan and Peacocks are going to be left further and further behind."
source:http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/resources/reports/257-lets-clean-up-fashion-2008