Zara customers find notes from 'unpaid workers' in clothing

One in five of UK employees are still earning below the real Living Wage, which means that approximately 5.5 million workers are struggling to get out of in-work poverty, according to KPMG’s annual Living Wage report.

And the scale of employee poverty affects people all over the world – even if they are not directly working in the UK. Zara, a popular fashion chain, may be guilty of exploiting workers, after customers found notes written by disgruntled workers which, in part, read: “I made this item you are going to buy, but I didn’t get paid for it” – Newsweek reports.

The workers are thought to be from Bravo Texstil, based in Istanbul, a third-party manufacturer used by Zara. Workers are claiming that they are owed a couple of months of pay as well as severance allowance. A petition has been launched by the workers, after a former Bravo worker claimed that their boss left earlier in the year leaving 155 people without a source of income.

The petition states: “We have all laboured for Zara/Inditex, Next, and Mango for years. We made these brands’ products with our own hands, earning huge profits for them. We demand now that these brands give us the basic respect to compensate us for our labour. We demand no more than our basic rights! We call on the international community to support our struggle, sign and share to support our campaign!”