As you might know, Per Una is a nice Marks and Spencer brand, praised for its quality and fair price. But what is it like to sew a "Per Una" skirt? Let's check at the Chinese supplier, where they are made, to meet the workers and have a closer look.
There, needlewomen work from 8 am to 22 pm... everyday. This exceeds by far weekly legal overtime (120 hours here instead of 36 legal overtime hours per month).
Marks and Spencer is the biggest retailer in Great Britain, specialized on clothing and fine food. It was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks andThomas Spencer. On January 2007, it launched a 5 years plan called "Plan A" in order to become green friendly and to "help improve the lives of people in their supply chain".
Marks and Spencer now has 690 stores in UK + 320 stores in 41 other countries. It had a revenue of £ 9.5 billions in 2010. It's one of the biggest advertisers in the British press. Since the 90's, most of its suppliers moved todevelopping countries. It owns and sells severals popular brands including Portfolio, Per Una, Formula, Florentyna. M&S is known tohave loyal customers from generations.
Excessive overtime hours
DespiteM&S own "global sourcing principles" for suppliers, M&S own audits and its own "Plan A" campaign, M&S also failed to make one of its major Chinese suppliers respect fair and legal labor practices andChinese laws.
Themanager , who accompanied us, was actually pushing the workers pretty hard, everyday from 8 am to 10 pm, with shortened lunch breaks, in order to achieve M&S orders while cutting labor costs.
Is M&S policy adequate? Despite marketing campaigns, is the UK retailer really committed to change the way it is doing business?
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