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Speaker 1: Chances are you or someone that you know has recently

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Speaker 1: bought something from Timu. This is this Chinese online retailer

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Speaker 1: popularities going through the roof new research from Tearfund New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: Rickons one and four of us have bought something from

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Speaker 1: Timu in the past three months. But this concern about

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Speaker 1: the ethics of buying at these ultra fast fashion retailers.

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Speaker 1: World Aid's Ethical Fashion Report out also Today's scored Temu

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Speaker 1: zero for failing to protect workers and environmental impacts. And

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Speaker 1: Claire Gray is Tear Funds Education and Advocacy manager and

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Speaker 1: with us. Now, hey Claire, hi heiter, how are you

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Speaker 1: we had good? Thank you you bought anything from Timu?

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Speaker 2: Yes? I have, actually, yeah, I know. I'm one of

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Speaker 2: the one million of us that have bought from Timu,

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Speaker 2: and I think it's such a good example for me.

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Speaker 2: I was buying stuff from my daughter's birthday party and

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Speaker 2: to give my daughter the party that I wanted to

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Speaker 2: give her in the budget that I had, that was

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Speaker 2: the choice I was faced with. And I think I'm

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Speaker 2: one of well, I know, I'm one of you know,

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Speaker 2: a million New Zealand who's made a similar choice in

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Speaker 2: that situation. You know, our cost of living is rising,

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Speaker 2: and we're faced with situations where we need to buy items,

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Speaker 2: clothes or other things from places that we know may

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Speaker 2: not be treating work as well in their supply chains,

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Speaker 2: and it's a really tough position to be in.

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Speaker 1: So what is TEMU doing to their workers in the

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Speaker 1: supply chains?

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Speaker 2: Well, first off, it's really hard to tell because TIMU

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Speaker 2: is really untransparent with what's happening in their supply chain,

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Speaker 2: So if you pop on their website, it's really hard

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Speaker 2: to get a good idea of how their workers are

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Speaker 2: being treated. But different investigations outside of tearfunds researchs have

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Speaker 2: shown that there seems to be extreme over time happening

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Speaker 2: in Timu's supply chains. So workers will be working up

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Speaker 2: to three hundred and eighty hours a month producing the

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Speaker 2: clothes that we then buy for really low cost.

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Speaker 1: And is this against their wishes? Are they being compelled

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Speaker 1: to work these long hours?

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Speaker 2: In some cases they are so. TIMO has also been

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Speaker 2: linked to state sanctioned force labor in China. A report

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Speaker 2: came out from US lawmakers last year that said it

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Speaker 2: was highly likely that you know, there was force labor

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Speaker 2: in the supply chain, So that's when someone doesn't have

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Speaker 2: that choice about whether they are working or not. But

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Speaker 2: in some cases it will be less extreme forms of exploitation.

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Speaker 2: So that would would be when we're talking about the

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Speaker 2: excess of overtime and working all of that over time

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Speaker 2: and still being stuck in a situation where you can't

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Speaker 2: provide for your family. So we're looking at the full

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Speaker 2: spectrum rarely.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So what does it tell you about the fact

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Speaker 1: that one in four of us, including yourself, have brought

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Speaker 1: something from timud despite the fact that we know that

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Speaker 1: there's probably some weird and dodgy stuff going on. Does

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Speaker 1: it make Are you demoralized by the fact that we

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Speaker 1: care more about our own money than we care about

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Speaker 1: what's happening with other people.

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Speaker 2: I think it's quite natural in many ways.

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Speaker 1: How do you get around that?

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Speaker 2: Then? Well, one, I think it's helpful for us to

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Speaker 2: raise awareness. I mean, I know and my friends, you

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Speaker 2: know what I would talk about. We're talking about TIMU,

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Speaker 2: and I don't think a lot of people would have

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Speaker 2: much of an idea of the degree of exploitation that

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Speaker 2: may be happening. So I think a big piece of

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Speaker 2: the puzzle is raising awareness, and then the other piece

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Speaker 2: of the puzzle is acknowledging that as consumers this isn't

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Speaker 2: actually up to us to fix by ourselves. We also

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Speaker 2: need to see companies and the government addressing the issue

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Speaker 2: of exploitation and supply chains. So companies really need to

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Speaker 2: take responsibility for human rights abuses in their supply chains,

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Speaker 2: and we would also like to see the government legislate

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Speaker 2: to make it a legal requirement like it is in

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Speaker 2: many jurisdictions around the world for companies to do this.

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Speaker 2: And then together we're all doing our bit and making

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Speaker 2: a difference.

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Speaker 1: Was the stuff that you got from timu any good?

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Speaker 2: Well, my daughter loved it, buddy, So well there you go.

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Speaker 1: Clear listen, thank you. I appreciated Clear, great education and

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Speaker 1: advocacy manager at TIA. You've got to love the fact

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Speaker 1: that Claire was completely straight up with us. Mad respect

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Speaker 1: for that. For more from Hither, Dupless, Yell and Drive,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.