Shein found two cases of child labour at suppliers in 2024, firm tells UK MPs

Shein found two cases of child labour at its suppliers last year after audits of its mostly China-based third-party manufacturers, the company has told British MPs.

The disclosure by the online fast-fashion retailer, which is planning an initial public offering in London, was in response to questions from a parliamentary committee.

The figure, which is the same as in 2023, was disclosed in a letter that Yinan Zhu, Shein’s general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, wrote to MPs earlier this month, and which was published on Tuesday.

Shein has faced allegations of worker abuses in its supply chain, and the cross-party business and trade committee questioned Zhu in person in January, following up with letters asking for additional information.

Zhu refused to reassure the committee at the hearing that Shein’s products did not include cotton produced in the Xinjiang region of China, which has been linked to forced Uyghur labour, prompting one MP to accuse him of “wilful ignorance”.

In his letter, Zhu said one of the incidents had involved a child aged 11 years and eight months, whom the audit found had spent time during the summer holiday at a factory where her father was the general manager and her mother worked, and “helped with tasks”.

“Nonetheless, and irrespective of these details, we took the issue extremely seriously, including designating the incident as child labour and immediately terminating our relationship with the supplier,” Zhu said in the letter.

The second case involved a child aged 15 years and three months, he said. Zhu also gave the ages of the children Shein previously said it had found working at suppliers in 2023 as 15 years and 11 months, and 15 years and nine months.

Shein conducted about 4,300 audits covering about 317,000 workers in 2024, up from 4,000 audits covering 285,000 workers in 2023, according to the letter.

“We take a strict zero-tolerance approach to child labour,” Zhu wrote. “We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that these isolated cases are removed from our supply chain entirely in future, bringing our network of third-party suppliers globally, including in China, Brazil and Turkey, along with us.”

The latest concerns about conditions in Shein’s supply chain emerged after reports that the retailer was under pressure to cut the valuation for its planned flotation to $30bn (£24bn), well below the $64bn-plus it had previously hoped for.

The mooted listing, which is still awaiting clearance from the UK and Chinese authorities but is seen as a potentially important win for the London Stock Exchange, is now expected to be delayed until the latter part of this year.

Aside from concerns about working conditions in the supply chain, the business is facing difficulties in the US, where Donald Trump’s administration is poised to remove the $800 “de minimis” rule which has helped Shein post goods to shoppers without import tax.

The company has also faced increased competition from the likes of Temu. Shein’s sales increased by 19% to $38bn last year, lower than the hoped for $45bn, the Financial Times reported. Net profit reportedly dropped by almost 40% to $1bn.

Reuters contributed to this report