London - Many of the clothes in Britain's high street stores have been made in sweat shops in Asia, according to a new report. In countries like Bangladesh workers get as little as 60p for a 13-hour day, according to research from the Catholic charity Cafod in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
In Indonesia, some people earned just 6p a day and in China workers were allowed just one or two days off a month, despite working 12-15 hours per day, Cafod said.
A spokeswoman said: "What makes these conditions particularly bad is that British companies are looking for cheaper and cheaper products and competition from Third World factories to undercut each other is creating an environment where workers can be exploited." Cafod is now urging stores to join the government-backed Ethical Trading Initiative.
This could see the introduction of independent spot checks in factories and properly monitored codes of conduct governing working conditions to help stop the exploitation.