A customer of Primark has claimed to have found a label stitched inside a dress that tries to draw attention to exploitative working conditions of ready-made garments workers.
Denying the claims, the British-owned retail group said it would investigate the matters, reports Guardian.
Primark operates in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
A 25-year-old customer of the retail group, Rebecca Gallagher claimed that she found a label on a £10 dress which she purchased from a Primark store in Swansea. The label reads “forced to work exhausting hours.”
She said the message was written on one of a number of stitched labels which gave Primark addresses in Spain and Ireland along with washing instructions.
She said: “You hear all sorts of stories about people working in sweatshops abroad – it made me so guilty that I can never wear that dress again.”
The customer claimed that she attempted to call the retailing giant and was put on hold for 15 minutes before being cut off.
A spokesman for Primark said: “We would be grateful if the customer would give us the dress, so we can investigate how the additional label became attached and whether there are issues which need to be looked into.”
“Primark’s Code of Conduct sets out the core principles that suppliers and factories must follow to ensure products are made in good working conditions, and that the people making them are treated decently and paid a fair wage,” the spokesman added.
On the other hand, another shopper of the retail brand has claimed that she found a “cry for help” note hidden inside a pair of trousers alleging slave labour conditions in a Chinese prison.
The note which was wrapped in a prison identity card claimed inmates were forced to work 15 hours a day to make clothes.
Karen Wisínska bought the trousers in Primark’s Belfast store in June 2011 but had never worn them. She discovered the note just last week.
The claims come just two months after the first anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse that killed more than 1129 and injured scores in Bangladesh,
Primark, unlike other retailers who have admitted to a presence in the factory, has contributed to the compensation fund.
But the hidden messages raise questions regarding to whether a garment worker could somewhere in the developing world really reach across the heads of people concerned with such messages and bring a change to the working situations which they claim is prevailing in the sector.