H&M Accused of Working With Underpaid and Overworked 14-Year-Olds in Myanmar Factories

Fast fashion comes at a cost, as shown by a new book published in Sweden. One of the largest retailers in the world is reportedly guilty of working with preteen employees.

H&M, which has a global presence and is headquartered in the Scandinavian nation, has contracts with two factories in Myanmar that have employed children as young as 14 to work more than 12 hours a day, according to Modeslavar (“fashion slaves” in English). And they make under $3 a day, the lowest minimum wage in the world, reports The Guardian.

“How was your shirt so cheap?” the book’s description asks. “The Western world often talks of the democratization of fashion, how the cheap clothing chain allows everyone to dress fashionably. Recent trends ironed out to customers at a furious pace. Meanwhile, it is reported repeatedly about the clothing industry’s dirty back, where slave factories, deadly poisons, and child labor are part of everyday life. Nothing indicates that it has gotten better. How can this continue?” The authors traveled around Southeast Asia to report back on “the people who pay the real price for our cheap clothes.”

Zu Zu, who started work at the age of 14, told authors Moa Kärnstrand and Tobias Andersson Akerblom that the factories “employed anyone who wanted to work.” The writers claim to have spoken with a handful of 15-year-old girls who were working until 10 p.m. at two factories, Myanmar Century Liaoyuan Knitted Wear and Myanmar Wedge Garment, both near the capital city of Yangon.

These long days are in breach of the laws both of Myanmar and the International Labour Organization, which sets the minimum working age at 14 in countries “where the economy and educational facilities are insufficiently developed,” (although The Guardian notes that the county allows children aged 13 to 15 to do light work, as long as it does not threaten their health, safety, or education).

According to a feature about the book on the Swedish news site Geo, the young girls got the jobs with the help of forged identification cards, because younger workers are only supposed to work four hours a day. However, even adults are only supposed to work eight. “We tried to protest in the summer, because we had been forced to work until 10 p.m. every night that week,” 17-year-old Maw Maw, who works for one of H&M’s factories, told the authors of the book (which we translated from the Swedish). The girls said that when the factory knows they will be inspected, workers under the age of 18 are ordered to take two days off, because inspectors will often look into how old the workers are and how long they work.

A girl named Myat, 17, told the authors she’s been working since she was 11. She says that there are at least four girls under the age of 15 at her production line in the factory.

H&M is only one of the major retailers that has worked with such factories in Myanmar. The book also names British brands like Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Primark, as well as Gap.

H&M is claiming that it has attempted to play by the rules. “When 14- to 18-year-olds are working, it is therefore not a case of child labour, according to international labour laws,” the company said in a statement to The Guardian. “ILO instead stresses the importance of not excluding this age group from work in Myanmar. H&M does of course not tolerate child labour in any form." H&M said it has “taken action” in the past with both factories over “ID-cards and overtime” after being made aware that a group of 14- to 17-year-olds had been working long hours since 2013.

"It is of utmost importance to us that our products are made under good working conditions and with consideration to safety, health, and the environment,” H&M said. “We have therefore taken action regarding two suppliers in Myanmar which have had problems with ID-cards and overtime…any overtime must be in accordance with legislation as well as our own demands, this is particularly important when it comes to the age group 14-18. If a supplier doesn’t live up to our standards or national legislation we — in accordance with our routines — demand that the supplier immediately establishes an action plan, which has been done also in this case. One of the measures concerning the two suppliers in question is improved recruitment routines, which has resulted in improved handling of ID-cards.”

The apparel company added that teenagers’ working long hours at suppliers’ factories was “unacceptable.”

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