An investigation by theMail on Sunday has revealed that workers in Bangladesh producing Gary Lineker’s £55 X Next jacket are paid just 44p an hour. Here’s an excerpt:
When Gary Lineker wore a green jacket from Next while presenting coverage of the Euros, he was accused of flouting BBC guidelines by plugging his own clothing range.
Now he is facing further questions after a Mail on Sunday investigation today reveals that workers who make the jacket are paid a pitiful 44p an hour.
The MoS discovered that those involved in producing hundreds of the £55 jackets promoted by Lineker are enduring grinding poverty and living in tiny tin-roof shacks near a giant factory complex in Bangladesh.
A worker in her 20s, who said she stitched the jackets, described working at least 48 hours a week in stifling heat – and she barely makes enough money to provide for her young child;
A male worker laughed bitterly when told the jacket he made costs more than double his weekly wage and is endorsed by Mr. Lineker, adding: “We work many hours and cannot buy a jacket like this with our salary”;
Next, which boasted record £918 million profits last year, has been criticised for failing to back calls for a higher minimum wage in Bangladesh;
Lineker, who is paid £1.35 million a year by the BBC to front Match Of The Day, previously fought back tears and spoke of the “inhumane” poverty he witnessed in Bangladesh during a film for Sport Relief;
Branding experts told this newspaper his Next deal may be worth about £2 million.
He visited the country in 2012 to make a film for BBC Sport Relief and appeared close to tears as he watched children foraging for bits of plastic in a 100-acre rubbish dump in Dhaka. Gary Lineker pictured on Visit Bangladesh in 2012
Last night, Khadija Khatun, a trade union leader in Bangladesh, said it was “shocking” that someone with Mr. Lineker’s influence is paid to promote clothes made by workers earning “poverty wages”.
Lineker came under fire earlier this month when he led coverage of England’s opening match against Serbia, in front of 15 million BBC viewers, wearing a pale green T-shirt and ‘trucker’ jacket from his Next range.
He was accused of breaching the BBC’s strict rules on promotional activity, and BBC Sport bosses reportedly spoke to Lineker afterwards to remind him of the guidelines. He has not been seen wearing clothes from his Next range on TV since the controversy.
This weekend, after a two-week investigation in Bangladesh, a Mail on Sunday reporter traced the sage-green jacket worn by the wealthy ex-footballer to a factory complex run by a firm called the Aptech Group in Gazipur, a sprawling industrial city 27 miles north of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka.
The MoS spoke to six workers at the factory, who confirmed it produces garments that are part of the Next Gary Lineker range.
Four either worked on, or saw others work on, the sage-green jacket Lineker wore on TV. …
Many of Aptech’s thousands of garment employees work on its production lines for six days a week but have to boost their meagre pay packets by working overtime.
The workers, many of whom have moved hundreds of miles from the poorest parts of Bangladesh to work in the factory, live in shanty villages in the countryside around the complex. …
Last week, as chickens and stray dogs roamed in the street outside, an MoS reporter spoke to an Aptech worker in her tiny home near the industrial park.
The machinist said she personally worked on the sage-green jacket about three months ago, stitching part of its inside pocket.
“We had the order for about 15-20 days,” she said. “There are about 100 of us who worked on the jacket in our line. All of the jackets of this kind were made with my hand. If there were 2,000 jackets, then I handled 2,000.”
The woman said she works eight hours a day, six days a week for a salary of 13,500 Taka (£91) a month. …
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soundofreason
10 months ago
I like buying cheap clothes for informal wear. I bought most of my Tee shirts from Tesco. The fact that a £55 jacket is made by people paid 44p/hr does seem unreasonable in that somewhere from the cotton farming to the cash register someone may be making disproportionate profit.
So what to do? If we stop buying £55 jackets from Next we can buy them from somewhere else? How does that help the sewing workers in Bangladesh? If we pressure Next into not buying from Bangladesh will that help? If we refuse to buy Bangladeshi made clothes from any other outlet will that help them? Of course not.
We significantly reduced buying cheap consumer products during the lockdowns. That meant many in such employment lost their work. There was no furlough scheme in Bangladesh.
Correct, this is no accident – they try to stuff us full of processed food to make us ill and stupid, them big pharma comes in to save the day with their dodgy compounds of limited effect, and unknown side effects. The politicians repeat the same lies they did at the last election and nobody notices – pretty depressing really but us and TDS can help to wake a few up at least as we descend down the plughole of tyranny…at least we’ll have someone to help keep us warm as we starve and freeze on the street, once they shutdown our bank accounts for no compliance of the next jab mandate – LOL.
Trade through comparative advantage. We can’t make things cheaply because of socialist state and nut zero. It doesn’t change the fact Linekar is an odious toad who has allegedly treated the women in his life incredibly badly.
JXB
10 months ago
Choice… earn 44p an hour or earn nothing. Tough one.
In purchase terms how does 44p in Bangladesh compare with 44p here in the UK? Don’t know? Of course not.
In the 1950s my father earned 15p an hour,
A pint of beer in the 1970s cost 15p, today the average cost is £4-39. Why?
There is a poverty of understanding when it comes to economics, economic history – or in fact most things.
Stop it with the emoting and learn some economics.
£55 per jacket includes the cost of capital, promotion, operating shops, transportation, and oh dear profit, the reward for investing your capital. Profit! How dare you!
People in rich Countries should mind their own business – they can’t manage their own affairs – leave people in poor developing Countries alone to develop and move themselves out of overtly by working, just as our ancestors did during the Industrial Revolution.
I blame the schools and 80 years of Socialist brain-rot affecting the majority of the ignorant, mindless blobs in our population allergic to productive work.
Don’t forget – vote Labour 04 July – lots of free stuff paid for by the magic money tree. Work is for mugs and Bangladeshi.
Ah, Gravy Lineker. I don’t suppose it has occurred to him to donate his £2 million Next fee to a Third World charity in order that it might be used to improve the lot of the poor.
Thought not.
Everything that is vain, narcissistic and demeaning wrapped up in one crispy packet.
Well summed up sir – he is a most disgusting individual, a perfect candidate to headline a BBC show! Defund them and stop paying for their dodgy TV tax, I did.
Ron Smith
10 months ago
One of the biggest wanke*s in the country. Mind you, anyone why buys from Primark is also wearing clothes from cheap labour. Remember driving past a large ‘garment’ (their words) factory in Sri Lanka.
Which reminds me of the Billy Connolly tale about the turd that wouldn’t be flushed.
Michael Staples
10 months ago
I cannot stand Lineker but I would not join in a hue and cry about wages in Bangladesh until I read about the comparative cost of living etc. The workers get these jobs because they are cheaper. Would they be better off without the work?
Covid-1984
10 months ago
Ah Gary Lineker, who’s views on anything are akin to a empty crisp packet blowing across a car park
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
I like buying cheap clothes for informal wear. I bought most of my Tee shirts from Tesco. The fact that a £55 jacket is made by people paid 44p/hr does seem unreasonable in that somewhere from the cotton farming to the cash register someone may be making disproportionate profit.
So what to do? If we stop buying £55 jackets from Next we can buy them from somewhere else? How does that help the sewing workers in Bangladesh? If we pressure Next into not buying from Bangladesh will that help? If we refuse to buy Bangladeshi made clothes from any other outlet will that help them? Of course not.
We significantly reduced buying cheap consumer products during the lockdowns. That meant many in such employment lost their work. There was no furlough scheme in Bangladesh.
We must be careful what we wish for.
You are addressing idiots. No amount of reason or evidence can convince an idiot.
Lockdown was only possible because of the preponderance of idiots.
Spot on. IQ levels have plummeted .
Correct, this is no accident – they try to stuff us full of processed food to make us ill and stupid, them big pharma comes in to save the day with their dodgy compounds of limited effect, and unknown side effects. The politicians repeat the same lies they did at the last election and nobody notices – pretty depressing really but us and TDS can help to wake a few up at least as we descend down the plughole of tyranny…at least we’ll have someone to help keep us warm as we starve and freeze on the street, once they shutdown our bank accounts for no compliance of the next jab mandate – LOL.
Wise words, wise words indeed.
Trade through comparative advantage. We can’t make things cheaply because of socialist state and nut zero. It doesn’t change the fact Linekar is an odious toad who has allegedly treated the women in his life incredibly badly.
Choice… earn 44p an hour or earn nothing. Tough one.
In purchase terms how does 44p in Bangladesh compare with 44p here in the UK? Don’t know? Of course not.
In the 1950s my father earned 15p an hour,
A pint of beer in the 1970s cost 15p, today the average cost is £4-39. Why?
There is a poverty of understanding when it comes to economics, economic history – or in fact most things.
Stop it with the emoting and learn some economics.
£55 per jacket includes the cost of capital, promotion, operating shops, transportation, and oh dear profit, the reward for investing your capital. Profit! How dare you!
People in rich Countries should mind their own business – they can’t manage their own affairs – leave people in poor developing Countries alone to develop and move themselves out of overtly by working, just as our ancestors did during the Industrial Revolution.
I blame the schools and 80 years of Socialist brain-rot affecting the majority of the ignorant, mindless blobs in our population allergic to productive work.
Don’t forget – vote Labour 04 July – lots of free stuff paid for by the magic money tree. Work is for mugs and Bangladeshi.
Ah, Gravy Lineker. I don’t suppose it has occurred to him to donate his £2 million Next fee to a Third World charity in order that it might be used to improve the lot of the poor.
Thought not.
Everything that is vain, narcissistic and demeaning wrapped up in one crispy packet.
Well summed up sir – he is a most disgusting individual, a perfect candidate to headline a BBC show! Defund them and stop paying for their dodgy TV tax, I did.
One of the biggest wanke*s in the country. Mind you, anyone why buys from Primark is also wearing clothes from cheap labour. Remember driving past a large ‘garment’ (their words) factory in Sri Lanka.
The realty is that most clothes sold in the UK are produced in places like Bangladesh, Thailand, Turkey no matter the label.
It’s about time this turd was flushed away.
Which reminds me of the Billy Connolly tale about the turd that wouldn’t be flushed.
I cannot stand Lineker but I would not join in a hue and cry about wages in Bangladesh until I read about the comparative cost of living etc. The workers get these jobs because they are cheaper. Would they be better off without the work?
Ah Gary Lineker, who’s views on anything are akin to a empty crisp packet blowing across a car park