Group hits Shein with labour abuse dossier ahead of Select Committee
Fast fashion giant Shein has been provided with a dossier of evidence alleging supply chain abuses by a human rights group ahead of its appearance before a Select Committee on Tuesday.
Leigh Day, the lawyers for Stop Uyghur Genocide (SUG), delivered the catalogue of claims to Shein’s senior lawyer for EMEA, Yinan Zhu ahead of the online retail giant’s crunch appearance in front of MPs, which foreshadows a controversial £50bn listing on the London Stock Exchange.
The London-based general counsel, Zhu, has been summoned to provide evidence to the Business and Trade Select Committee tomorrow for its ‘Make Work Pay: Employment Rights Bill’ inquiry.
Last June, SUG called for the Chinese-founded retailer’s rumoured London IPO to be blocked over concerns with alleged use of forced labour in its supply chains.
The group wrote to the City regulatory, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), claiming Shein’s listing would be “irreconcilable with the FCA’s statutory duty of integrity, its principles and standards as well as the protection of investors”.
The dossier is said to show “clear, identifiable links between cotton production in the Uyghur region and forced labour”. The group also pointed to publicly available evidence which it said links Shein’s supply chains to cotton produced in the Uyghur region.
Rahima Mahmut, executive director of SUG, said: “The select committee must properly scrutinise labour practices and the FCA must take a firm stand and block Shein’s listing on the London Stock Exchange.”
While Leigh Day lawyer Ricardo Gama added: “It’s important that our system of checks and balances works to make sure that companies which are shown to make their profits through criminal practices, and in particular forced labour, aren’t allowed to raise capital on the London market. That includes the FCA as financial regulator, as well as MPs through parliamentary select committees.
“Our client urges these institutional actors to uphold the rule of law in the regulation of multinational companies like Shein.”
Zhu will be called around 3:30pm on Tuesday for her evidence along with the senior legal counsel at Temu, Stephen Heary, and Temu’s senior compliance manager Leonard Klenner, UK independent anti-slavery commissioner Eleanor Lyons and CEO of McDonalds UK and Ireland, Alistair Macrow.