This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Mothercare use a factory in Bangladesh that paid the equivalent of 35p an hour to machinists making Spice Girls T-shirts sold to raise money for Comic Relief, it can be revealed.

A Guardian investigation disclosed that the predominantly female employees claimed they experienced verbal abuse and harassment from management during shifts of up to 16 hours.

Workers at the factory produced the £19.40 T-shirts, which were emblazoned with the message “#IWannaBeASpiceGirl”, to raise money for the charity’s “gender justice” campaign.

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But employees said they were called “daughters of prostitutes” by managers for not hitting “impossible” targets and claimed employees were forced to work despite being ill.

The Spice Girls and Comic Relief said they had been kept in the dark about a change of manufacturer and were “shocked” by the findings.

Now it has emerged that Interstoff Apparels, which makes millions of pounds in profits and is co-owned by a Bangladeshi government minister, also produces garments for major British retailers.

Tesco and M&S launched investigations after the revelations, while Mothercare, which sells clothing for babies, children and expectant mothers, said it would be reviewing the findings.

Labour’s Mary Creagh said the news was a “wake-up call” and urged retailers to do more to ensure workers producing clothes for them are not abused.

The MP, who chairs the environmental audit committee, which has been investigating the garment industry, said: “There is no reason for any British retailer to tolerate these abuses in the labour supply chain.

“I remarked in one of our inquiries that large supermarkets can tell me more about the lives of the animals that we are eating than about the people who make our clothes.

“There is a bitter irony that a band founded on girl power makes a T-shirt promoting gender equality through exploiting the rights of women and girls with poverty wages and harsh working conditions. The band should have double- and triple-checked with their supplier.”

Comic Relief said it was “shocked and concerned” and both the charity and Spice Girls had checked the ethical sourcing credentials of the online retailer commissioned by the band to make the T-shirts, but it had subsequently changed manufacturer without their knowledge.

The Spice Girls said they were “deeply shocked and appalled” by the Guardian’s findings and would personally fund an investigation into the factory’s working conditions.

But the Labour MP Rushanara Ali, who is the government’s trade envoy to Bangladesh, called on the band do more to help impoverished Bangladeshi garment workers and “learn from this terrible mistake”.

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She said: “I think it’s utterly shocking that the due diligence hasn’t been done successfully enough to prevent the sale and purchase of these goods when people are being paid so badly and treated so appallingly.

“Although there has been some improvement in the country since the Rana Plaza incident, where over 1,100 people lost their lives, what’s needed is celebrities like the Spice Girls to get behind campaigns to improve labour standards, pay and conditions for garment workers in Bangladesh and other countries in the developing world.”

The MP, who is the vice-chairwoman of the all-party parliamentary group on Bangladesh, added: “I think it’s important that celebrities don’t end up having their fingers burnt and stepping back altogether, as I think they have a positive role to play.

“They need to put their money where their mouth is, redouble their efforts and do more substantive work rather than one-off campaigns like this, which has blown up in their faces.”

Interstoff Apparels has said the Guardian’s findings would be investigated but were “simply not true”.

M&S confirmed the company has been working with Interstoff for 13 years. A spokesman added: “We will be investigating this incident. We take any allegation against factories we work with extremely seriously and we have already arranged for a compliance manager to visit as soon as possible.

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“In addition to there being regular M&S presence at the factory, we work with the factory on a number of programmes including gender equality and healthcare projects.”

Tesco said it was investigating. Mothercare said it took staff welfare “very seriously”, adding that the retailer “works in close dialogue with all factories” and would be reviewing the information.

A spokesman added: “Mothercare has a code of practice, based on the Ethical Trading Initiative code, which outlines the labour standards expected at all factories, which forms part of our conditions of trade.

“Before production is approved, all factories must provide an independent factory ethical audit from a shortlist of providers, to demonstrate that they comply with our code of practice.

“These audits are then reviewed and graded. Dependent on the findings, the factory is approved for production and a corrective action plan is issued, detailing any areas where the factory needs to improve. Factories found to have issues in the audit are not approved for production.

“Mothercare requires that once a factory is approved for production, an independent ethical audit is then renewed on an annual basis to ensure continued adherence with the code.”