How Leicester sweat shops are still full of workers earning £2.50 per hour despite lockdown
IT was business as usual for the poor factory workers servicing Britain’s high street fashion industry today.
Heads bowed as they shuffled wearily from the hulking red brick buildings that dot Leicester’s garment districts to the east of the city, the mainly Indian and Eastern European migrants seemed oblivious to the government order to stay at home.
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But it was what lurked inside the factories that was most concerning law abiding locals who are desperate to stop coronavirus from spreading.
The Sun today heard stories of ‘slave labour’ workers being paid just £2.50 an hour to toil in unsanitary conditions where they are made to put their lives on the line on a daily basis and cramped, terraced homes stuffed with multiple families and up to a dozen people.
People are allowed to work in factories under Matt Hancock's current restrictions, but it's up to business owners to shut down in a bid to halt the spread.
One business owner running a shop in the North Evington area of Leicester – where there are said to be 1,000 modern sweatshops – today called for the police to intervene before the situation gets even worse.
The man, who asked not to be named, told The Sun: “It’s crazy what is happening in these factories. These men and women are decent, hard working people but they are risking their lives to produce clothes for big fashion brands right here in the UK.
“It’s is wrong but no one is doing anything to put a stop to it. The police should go into the factories and close them down.
“The workers come into my shop and tell me that it is not safe for them because they are working close together with no PPE, but what can they do?
“They have rent and bills to pay and they want to make new lives for themselves in this country. What they are doing is slave labour, there is no other word for it.
"They are only getting £2.50 an hour and they make so little money they have to live with 10 others in two or three bedroom houses.
“The places they live in are disgusting, totally unfit for human beings. If you step inside you have to wear a mask and even then you are probably going to catch something. I know this is the truth because they have told me it themselves.”
'Forced to work through lockdown'
The same shop owner said most of the factory workers are from the Daman and Goa areas of India where they are able to get Portuguese passports that allow them free access to the UK.
A large number also come from Eastern European countries like Romania where they are willing to work long hours for pittance.
Pressure groups allege that workers have been forced to work throughout lockdown, despite high levels of infection in factories.
Dominique Muller, Policy Director at Labour Behind the Label tells us: "We were hearing that during lockdown there were factories that were still operating.
"In Leicester, a lot of the factories are tucked away in big buildings, so they're almost reminiscent of old-style sweatshops, and these ones kept on going.”
This week, businesses have been told to close down once more as the city goes into lockdown for a second time after the latest outbreak.
But when the Sun visited on Wednesday, the ‘Stay safe and healthy signs’ wrapped around lamp posts on almost every street meant little to the mainly Hindi, Gujurati and Romanian speaking population rushing to and from work – some wearing masks, many not.
'Faking furlough'
One factory manager, who was driving a sparkling grey Audi SUV, attempted to defend conditions while at the same time refusing to give her name or let our reporter inside to see for themselves.
She said: “There’s no such thing as slave labour. People only work here because they want to and if the conditions were so bad the workers would go and get jobs somewhere else.
“The police came to inspect this place twice in May and they’ve let us carry on working because they haven’t found anything wrong.
“We supply women’s wear but we have lost money during the pandemic as we had to close for about four weeks despite having zero cases of coronavirus.”
Most business owners we approached refused to speak while many of the workers ducked away from our reporter, repeating: “No English.”
Another local gave his theory for the secretive atmosphere, saying: “They won’t talk to you because they’ve put all their staff on furlough, so they’re not supposed to be working.
“The factories are as busy as they’ve ever been, you wouldn’t guess we are supposed to be in lockdown.
One business owner who did let us inside was Daniel Mangia, 30, the general manager of Fleece Knit Ltd, a knitting factory making aprons for hospitals.
He said: “We only have a few people working here so it’s easier to keep social distancing and we had everyone tested for coronavirus yesterday. We are still waiting for two results to come back but me and my colleague tested negative.
“For me the government guidelines are not that clear and while I am certain we are key workers as we make hospital aprons, I don’t think it’s so clear for the other businesses – and most of the UK fashion industry is here.”
Mukesh Chauham, 51, runs Regent Shoe Repairs in North Evington and said he believes he already caught coronavirus.
He said: “I think I caught it from touching a pedestrian crossing button. I was very ill for about two weeks at the start of lockdown. I can tell you that you don’t want to catch coronavirus, it is a nasty, nasty illness.
“I do worry about the situation right now as I see people spitting outside my shop all the time.
“You can see the red spit right here from the leaves they chew.
“The warning signs asking to keep two metres apart are all in English but so many people here do not speak English and the message is not getting through.
“I shut my business this week on the advice on the government but look up and down the road, so many non-essential shops are still open. It’s a joke and something should be done about it but you tell people here to go home and they laugh at you.”
"No surprise" the disease is flourishing in the city
A Government source told The Sun that the outbreak in Leicester is believed to have started in food processing sites – but then swept through garment factories in the east of the city.
It is believed high humidity in the factories and a lack of social distancing helped the virus spread like wildfire before workers returned home and passed on infection.
Workers in the Spinney Hills area told us it was "no surprise" the disease is flourishing in the city.
One employee, who worked in a factory there until last month, told us: "While measures were put in place after lockdown, inside the factory these were not policed properly.
"Social distancing when it was adhered to disappeared as soon as the staff were outside the factory gates.
"Staff were still going into work after the first positive test, nipping out to get tested (again) then returning to work rather than staying home.
"It's no surprise the virus is flourishing in Leicester when government guidelines are not being followed."
We spoke to one employee who works in a factory in the St Saviours Road area, where many of Leicester's garment factories are based.
He told us a large number of workers do not speak English – and social distancing measures were only advised via signs in staff areas.
He said: "It was a case of just getting on with it. People need to work to survive and in a lot of cases they were completely unaware of the rules anyway.
"We were told to come back the first day possible, on May 11. We're on zero hours contracts and if we don't work, we don't get paid, so there's no other choice."
Another resident described a local factory as “an absolutely disgusting, unsafe and intimidating place of work, filled with desperate, sad eyed, zombie workforce.”
And one local told us that the garment industry situation in Leicester has been going on for “generations.”
He says: "My brother used to work in one of these factories. The workplace was generally lacking and work was often casual, or semi-casual. The work conditions were poor though not terrible.
“Much of the textile work was done via illegal workers, ascertained (and generally understood to be illegals) when raids were executed on the businesses and the workers would escape the premises often with the management.
“Sometimes they would be caught but nothing was really done about it as workers would return. My understanding is that there were parts of streets – a good number of houses – where workers were housed as part of their pay.”
Leicester’s houses are among the most overcrowded in Britain outside of London, according to the 2011 Census.
Many factory workers live up to 20 to a house which, during the pandemic, has made it even easier for Covid to spread.
Some are packed into properties owned by the textile lords they work for – giving these bosses power over their professional and personal lives.
Many people in the factories also don’t have documented resident status, forcing them to accept brutal working conditions in exchange for a job.
This in turn makes many workers fearful to speak out about their treatment.
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Our government source added: "We have found the immigration status of many of the workers in the affected factories is highly questionable.
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"We are encouraging them to come forward for testing so we can identify infections as fast as possible but they are anxious.
"The Home Office has said none of them will be deported during the pandemic. The focus at the moment is public health."