LEICESTER East MP Claudia Webbe demanded action today to end the super-exploitation of garment workers in the city after a recent investigation found that it is still rife.
Despite a series of exposés of sweatshop conditions in the city, with garment workers paid sometimes less than £3.25 an hour for making clothes for high-street names, a follow-up investigation by iNews found that the law was still being broken routinely.
It found that workers were still being paid below the minimum wage, that some who were nominally paid the minimum were forced to pay some back to bosses in cash, and that workers were threatened against speaking out.
ANN HENDERSON looks at the trailblazers of the Women’s Trade Union League and their successful fight for female factory inspectors — a battle that echoes in today’s workplace campaigns



