H&M Australia

The Chinese government has facilitated the mass transfer of Uyghur and other ethnic minority citizens from the far west region of Xinjiang to factories across the country. Under conditions that strongly suggest forced labour, Uyghurs are working in factories that are in the supply chains of at least 83 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive sectors, including brands owned by this company. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute's 2020 report estimates (somewhat conservatively) that more than 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred out of Xinjiang to work in factories across China between 2017 and 2019, and some of them were sent directly from detention camps.
Source: ASPI (2020)

While conditions for garment workers in Cambodia have improved since 2014, rights violations are still rampant in the garment industry and the country as a whole. Despite this Nike, Adidas, H&M, Gap Inc, and other international brands continue to rely on Cambodia for the manufacture of a significant portion of their products.
Source: ASEAN (2019)

This 2016 report from the Asia Floor Wage Alliance finds evidence of widespread exploitation in H&M supplier factories in Cambodia and India.
Source: Asia Floor Wage Alliance (2016)

The Clean Clothes Campaign report, Tailored Wages 2019 analyses responses from 32 top clothing brands about their progress in implementing a living wage for the workers who produce their clothes. This company received the lowest possible grade in the report, meaning they produced no evidence that any worker making their clothes was paid a living wage anywhere in the world.
Source: Clean Clothes Campaign (2019)

Female migrants employed in garment factories in Bangalore, India are recruited with false promises about wages and benefits, and are subjected to conditions of modern slavery. They work under high-pressure for low wages, and live in hostels with poor living conditions while their freedom of movement is severely restricted. This company was identified in the 2018 report "Labour Without Liberty" as sourcing garments from these factories.
Source: Clean Clothes Campaign (2018)

This company appeared on Global Exchange's list of "10 Top Corporate Criminals of 2016" for its failure to ensure the safety of workers in Bangladesh.
Source: Global Exchange (2016)

This company sources garments from factories in the Tamil Nadu region of South India. The yarn used in these factories also comes from Tamil Nadu, where large scale forced labour is used in the spinning mills. Workers in these mills are enslaved by employers who withhold their wages or lock them up in company-controlled hostels. They work long hours, face sexual harassment and do not even earn the minimum wage.
Source: India Committee of the Netherlands (2016)

The average worker in the Bangladeshi garment industry is getting paid only one third of what is considered to be a living wage. Low wages and long working hours have been found to play a key role in parents' decisions to take their children out of school and let them work in various jobs. This company was identified in SOMO's 2017 report 'Branded Childhood' as contributing to this situation.
Source: Stop Child Labour (2017)

In 2020, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) asked companies to provide data about their efforts towards removing commodity-driven deforestation and forest degradation from its direct operations and supply chains. Responding companies are scored across four key areas: disclosure; awareness; management; and leadership. This company received a CDP Forests Score of D.
Source: CDP (2020)

The Forest 500 identifies, ranks, and tracks the governments, companies and financial institutions worldwide that together could virtually eradicate tropical deforestation. Rankings are based on their public policies and commitments and potential impacts on tropical forests in the context of forest risk commodities (palm oil, soy, beef, leather, timber and paper). This company received a score of 27%.
Source: Forest 500 (2020)

Three years after H&M became the first signatory to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, almost all of its factories remain behind schedule in carrying out the mandated renovations, with 70% of its strategic suppliers still lacking adequate fire exits.
Source: Clean Clothes Campaign (2016)

In 2020 this H&M was fined 35 million euros for illegally surveilling employees in Germany. The company was found to have excessively monitored several hundred employees in a Nuremberg service centre. The watchdog said that since at least 2014, parts of the workforce had been subject to 'extensive recording of details about their private lives'.
Source: Forbes (2020)

This 2016 investigative report by the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) reveals how migrant garment workers in Bangalore, South India endure appalling living conditions, low wages and restricted freedom of movement. This company pledged to take serious action after being named in the report as sourcing from Bangalore.
Source: ICN (2016)

According to Oxfam's 2019 report, "Made in Poverty - The True Cost of Fashion", this company sources from Bangladesh and Vietnam. Some of the many disturbing findings of the research in Bangladesh were that 100 per cent of workers interviewed were not paid a living wage, nine out of ten could not afford enough food for themselves and their families until their next monthly pay and seven out of 10 could not pay for medical treatment when they were sick or injured. In Vietnam, 99 per cent were not paid a living wage and seven out of 10 women interviewed felt their pay was not enough to meet their needs.
Source: Oxfam Australia (2019)

This company sources garments from Ethiopia, where workers are paid an average of the equivalent of US$26 per month, the lowest in the world, according to a 2019 report from New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. Based on that amount, "Workers, mostly young women from poor farming families, cannot afford decent housing, food, and transportation."
Source: The Fashion Law (2019)