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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