3 reasons not to buy from H&M

     H&M is the second most famous retailer in the world just after Inditex (the owner of Zara). In 2021, we counted more than 5000 Hennes &Mauritz stores in the world. The company also operates in 74 different countries. Now the question is why we should not buy from H&M.

 The conditions of the workers

     Hennes & Mauritz have approximately 171,000 employees in their production line.

     H&M has made some improvements in its work conditions in recent years, but its workers are still not treated well enough. For example: At the Bulgarian provider of H&M, the average salary is  98 euros, which is less than half of the minimum wage, which is of 204 euros.

      In 2018, they promised to pay 850,000 a better salary, a promise they failed to reach.

 Labour rights

      The Fashion Transparency Index has published a detailed list of the providers of H&M in the last step of production such as information about forced labour, gender equality and freedom of association.

      Based on testimonials from several employees, the workers get sick at least once a month, they do not eat enough, they can’t even take a small break to go to the bathroom. Sometimes, the workers go back to the factory, even though their shifts are over, to finish some left over work.

 Quality of the clothes

      The clothing production process regularly implies the use of toxic dyes, solvents and pesticides. The use of these products is responsible for significant carbon emissions and use a lot of the world’s fresh water and land resources.

     So, while those low-price tags may be tempting, they are frequently a good index of the poor quality of the materials.

     It also indicates that people making those clothes are working in bad conditions which isn’t something we should encourage