A simple trip to the mall forever changed two women's' lives in the UK when they went shopping for summer dresses. Unfortunately, they faced a harsh reality.
The two women were complete strangers, but they both shopped at the Primark store. When they brought their dresses home from the store, they noticed that their items included a label with a cry for help.
One of the labels said, "degrading sweatshop conditions," according to Web Pro News. The other label said, "forced to work exhausting hours."
One of the women, Rachel Gallagher, was shocked to see the labels on her summer dresses. She said that it changed the way she thinks about shopping for clothes.
Gallagher told the Daily Mail, "I was amazed when I checked for the washing instructions and spotted this label. It was stitched by hand to say 'Forced to work exhausting hours' and sewn in with the other normal labels. To be honest I've never really thought much about how the clothes are made. But, this really made me think about how we get our cheap fashion. I dread to think that my summer top may be made by some exhausted person toiling away for hours in some sweatshop abroad."
The second woman, Miss Williams, shared a photo of the label via Twitter to Primark when she brought the red floral dress home. Both women also contacted the company but received no response. Primark's spokesperson describes the labels as "strange" and asked both of the women to return their summer dresses as part of an ongoing investigation.
This isn't the first time that Primark has come under fire over the working conditions of their overseas workers. In 2011, a garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed and killed 1,000 workers; at least 580 of them were employed by a Primark supplier, according to the Daily Mail. The factory was found to have crowding and poor working conditions.
The company announced four years later that they would compensate the workers who were injured and the families who lost loved ones in the devastating collapse. Primark says that they have "a code of conduct in place," but it seems like they haven't improved their overseas employees' working conditions.
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