Ireland must confront its role in fast fashion's exploitation, MEP warns as Shein workers earn 1 cent per garment

A BBC investigation this week laid bare the economics of ultra-fast fashion: workers in Guangzhou factories assembling clothes for Shein are earning less than one cent per garment while laboring through 75-hour weeks. The Chinese city, home to more than 5,000 factories supplying fast fashion retailers, pays workers as little as seven cents an hour. They work twelve-hour days, seven days a week, in direct violation of labor laws. Meanwhile, Shein—which sells dresses for five euros and turned a 1.5 billion euro profit last year—uses influencers and reality television personalities, including former Love Island contestant Arabella Chi, to market its wares to young consumers. When asked about the investigation, the company declined an interview but issued a statement asserting its commitment to fair treatment of workers in its supply chain.

The human cost of this model extends far beyond individual paychecks. Earlier this year, Shein admitted to discovering child labor in its supply chain. The company has also faced accusations of sourcing cotton produced under forced labor conditions in Xinjiang. These are not abstract concerns—they are documented practices embedded in the supply chains of companies now operating openly in Europe.

Ireland's role in this system deserves scrutiny. The country leads the European Union in textile consumption, with the average Irish person buying and discarding over fifty kilograms of textiles annually—more than double the EU average. This appetite for cheap clothing has consequences that ripple outward. In Chile's Atacama Desert, a region of extraordinary natural beauty, mountains of discarded synthetic textiles from Western countries now reshape the landscape, a physical monument to what young people call "haul culture"—the practice of filming and sharing massive shopping sprees online. Globally, up to one hundred billion pieces of clothing are produced each year, with ninety-two million tonnes ending up in landfills or incinerators annually.

Yet Ireland has actively welcomed the architects of this system. Temu's parent company, PDD Holdings Ltd, relocated its global headquarters to Dublin in November 2022. Shein established its Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters in the capital in May 2024. Both companies operate in fast fashion and both have faced mounting scrutiny over manufacturing practices, environmental impact, and alleged links to forced labor. The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into Temu for potential violations of the Digital Services Act. It is a peculiar contradiction: Ireland positions itself as a haven for multinational corporations while simultaneously hosting the headquarters of companies documented to exploit workers and damage the environment at scale.

MEP Barry Andrews, representing Dublin, argues that Ireland must confront its complicity. A review of Irish political parties' manifestos ahead of the November general election revealed significant gaps in addressing sustainability and ethical responsibility in fashion. The fashion industry ranks as the second largest polluter globally, responsible for roughly ten percent of worldwide carbon emissions. Yet the burden of resistance has been placed almost entirely on individual consumers, who are told to shop vintage, swap clothes, and resist temptation—even as their government rolls out the welcome mat for the very companies making resistance nearly impossible.

Some movement is underway. The UN Global Compact Network Ireland launched in November, offering Irish businesses frameworks for sustainable practice. The European Union has advanced several regulatory tools: the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, designed to curb exploitation of weak labor laws in developing countries; the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, requiring greater transparency on environmental and social governance; and the Forced Labour Regulation, approved by the European Parliament in April, aimed at eliminating goods produced under forced labor from EU markets. France has moved ahead with an environmental levy on hyper-fast fashion and a ban on fast fashion advertising, setting a precedent for the rest of Europe.

The incoming Irish government and the new EU Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Michael McGrath, have an opportunity to lead. Andrews calls on them to actively support policies promoting corporate sustainability, ensuring that businesses uphold human rights and environmental standards both within Ireland's borders and globally. The question is whether they will act—or whether the economics of a single garment earning a worker less than a penny will continue to define the industry's relationship with those who make it.