Sweat Shop Slaves Making Beyoncé Ivy Park Range — on £4.30 a Day

Ivy Park, Beyoncé’s new range of sportswear is “made for women who want to look and feel at the top of their game.” While the singer says the latest gym gear supports and inspires women, Topshop claims it empowers women through sport.

However, The Sun reveals that poverty-stricken seamstresses in a MAS Holdings factory in Sri Lanka — MAS Holdings employs 74,000 staff in 15 countries across Asia, 70% of whom are women — are working more than 60 hours a week and earning just £4.30 a day to make Beyoncé’s new high street sportswear range for Topshop. This high street fashion retailer is owned by under-fire fashion tycoon, Sir Philip Green.

Beyonce’s Ivy Park range is empowering, unless you’re a sweatshop worker:https://t.co/QXdStpl9uz pic.twitter.com/UaRWMECX3n

— i-D (@i_D) May 16, 2016

From her cramped 100-room boarding house, a 22-year-old sewing machine operator told The Sun that she earned 18,500 Rupees (£87.260 a month, which is just over half the Sri Lankan average of £164), for a nine and three-quarter hour shift with a 30-minute lunch break, five days a week. She also worked Saturdays, often without overtime pay.

“We don’t have our own kitchen or shower; it’s just a small bedroom. We have to share the shower block with the men so there isn’t much privacy. It is shocking and many of the women are very scared. We don’t have much spare money and what we do have we send back to our family.

“The work is hard — it’s just the same, same, same every day. We don’t get to go home much because we work all the time. They say if you work you can go up, up, up, but that’s just office workers. For us it stays the same always. All we do is work, sleep, work, sleep.”

#Ivypark is made by sweatshop slave labor. @Beyonce is another phoney first world feminist trying to make a buck. https://t.co/1coiq2ATOI

— John Smith (@45su7v) May 15, 2016

Insisting the women are being exploited and treated like slaves, another operator remarked:

“When they talk about women and empowerment this is just for the foreigners. They want the foreigners to think everything is okay.”

Although, since even the poorest workers are paid more than the legal minimum wage of 13,500 Rupees a month, MAS is not breaking any laws. But anti-slavery campaigners say a living wage is nearer 43,000 Rupees. Jakub Sobik told The Sun that the conditions are akin to “sweat shop slavery.”

“There are a number of elements here that tick the boxes in terms of slavery, the low pay, restriction of women’s movement at night and locking them in. Companies like Topshop have a duty to find out if these things are happening, and it has long been shown that ethical inspections by these companies are failing. They should be replaced by independent inspections.”

Despite these shocking claims, Ivy Park released a mechanical statement:

“Ivy Park has a rigorous ethical trading programme. We are proud of our sustained efforts in terms of factory inspections and audits, and our teams worldwide work very closely with our suppliers and their factories to ensure compliance. We expect our suppliers to meet our code of conduct and we support them in achieving these requirements.”

Surprise: Rich person’s Collection is Being Made in Sweatshops. Salary: $6/day https://t.co/YJPcOyZR48

— Nahia Sanzo (@nsanzo) May 16, 2016

In January, Beyoncé was criticized by Chief Jean Burgess of the Ghonaqua First Peoples for her rumored decision to make a film about Saartjie Sarah Baartman, a South African woman known for her large buttocks and unusual coloring. Baartman was taken to Europe in 1810, forced to perform against her will under the stage name of Hottentot Venus, and objectified by those who would pay to see her half-naked body.

“She lacks the basic human dignity to be worthy of writing Sarah’s story, let alone playing the part. Why Sarah Baartman? Why not a story about an Indigenous American woman? I can only see arrogance in her attempt to tell a story that is not hers to tell.”

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