Shein and Temu have agreed to give evidence on labour rights and wider employment issues at the UK’s House of Commons. Credit: Shutterstock.

The UK’s newly re-formed Business and Trade Committee has called on Shein and Temu to provide evidence ahead of a new Make Work Pay: Employment Rights Bill.

The UK government believes the bill will offer a comprehensive overhaul of employment law and has described it as the “biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.” 

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On 7 January Shein’s EMEA general counsel Yinan Zhu, alongside Temu’s senior legal counsel Stephen Heary and senior compliance manager Leonard Klenner will give oral evidence at the UK’s House of Commons as part of its inquiry on UK employment.

Shein and Temu will also be joined by representatives from fast food chain McDonalds, UK supermarket Tesco and UK retail trade organisation the British Retail Consortium.

Neither Shein nor Temu had responded to Just Style’s request for comment at the time of going to press.

The committee has asked Shein and Temu for evidence to inform the later stages of the Bill’s passage through Parliament and to help assess whether it will achieve its aims, which include:

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  • Ban exploitative zero-hours contracts 
  • End ‘fire and rehire’ and ‘fire and replace’ 
  • Make parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal a day one right 
  • Strengthen statutory sick pay 
  • Make flexible working the default from day one 
  • Strengthen protections for pregnant women and new mothers returning to work  
  • Strengthen protections from sexual harassment at work 
  • Strengthen legislation around the allocation of tips 
  • Strengthen protections around collective redundancy 
  • Introduce a new right to bereavement leave 
  • Establish a new Single Enforcement Body, called the Fair Work Agency 
  • Establish Fair Pay Agreements in the adult social care sector 
  • Reinstate the School Support Staff Negotiating Body 
  • Upgrade Trade Union legislation.

UK Parliament also hopes those providing evidence will help it to consider areas such as:

  • How the Bill will contribute to the Government’s stated goal of achieving the fastest growth in the G7.
  • Whether the Employment Rights Bill will adequately protect workers, improve security at work and raise living standards in every part of the country.
  • The impact the Bill will have on businesses, in particular investment rates, start-up rates, the supply of labour and the employment rate.
  • How to ensure adequate protection against exporting poor labour standards, including concerns over forced labour in international supply chains.

Last month (December) it was reported that Shein was considering asking UK regulators to waive listing rules that would require at least 10% of its shares to be sold to the public in its planned London flotation.

Shein refused to comment when approached by Just Style at the time but according to people close to the matter as quoted by Reuters, it was exploring the option to facilitate its IPO.

GlobalData’s apparel analyst Louise Deglise-Favre told Just Style the scrutiny Shein is facing ahead of an IPO is possibly more to do with China-versus-West politics than anything else.