UK Lawmakers Summon Shein and Temu for Questioning Over Labor Practices

Fast-fashion online retailer Shein, which is hoping to list in London, faces a U.K. hearing on Jan. 7 where a British parliamentary committee plans to question the firm, founded in China in 2008, about the rights of workers in its supply chain.

The cross-party Business and Trade Committee will also question Temu, the global online marketplace owned by Chinese e-commerce firm PDD Holdings, as part of an inquiry into employment rights opened in October.

The committee, chaired by former Labour minister Liam Byrne, is examining the government’s flagship employment rights bill in the context of protections for British workers. But it is also looking at how to ensure adequate protection against importing poor labor standards, including concerns over forced labor.

Shein’s general counsel for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Yinan Zhu, has been called to be a witness, an update on the committee website showed.

Stephen Heary, senior legal counsel at Temu, and Leonard Klenner, senior compliance manager at Temu, have also been asked to give evidence.

Shein declined to comment on the hearing. Temu was not immediately available for comment.

Both platforms, which sell clothes, shoes, gadgets and accessories at rock-bottom prices, have faced allegations of poor working practices at factories in China that make the products, and of forced labor in their supply chains.

Shein has previously said it is committed to respecting human rights and has a zero-tolerance policy on forced labor. Temu has also said it strictly prohibits forced labor.

Shein was founded in China but is now headquartered in Singapore.

Having grown rapidly in the U.S., Europe and the U.K., it is awaiting regulatory approval from British and Chinese authorities for a London initial public offering after filing papers with Britain’s market regulator in early June.

Margaret Beels, director of labor market enforcement at the Department for Business and Trade, was also asked to speak at the hearing, along with Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Eleanor Lyons, who last year raised concerns about Shein’s London IPO.

McDonald’s UK and Ireland CEO Alistair Macrow, and Claire Lorains, quality technical and sustainability director at supermarket group Tesco, were also called to give oral evidence.

(Reporting by Reid and Davey; editing by Jason Neely)