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BTC questions Shein, Temu, McDonalds, Tesco, Anti-Slavery Commissioner on labour rights and supply chain integrity

6 January 2025

The BTC will hold the second evidence session in its inquiry Making Work Pay: The Employment Rights Bill, questioning McDonalds, Tesco and the British Retail Consortium as well as Chinese global online retailers Shein and Temu on labour rights in their national operations and international supply chains. 

Companies like McDonalds have vigourously defended the “option” of zero-hours contracts, claiming it offers valuable flexibility for workers.  

But beyond the obvious impacts of low wages and insecurity, do these contracts exacerbate power imbalances in the workplace in a way that risks and perpetuates abuses?  

How do franchises and retailers like the witnesses appearing today ensure their operations uphold labour rights and standards throughout their global supply chains, especially where those standards do not operate locally?  

And how do we ensure that the UK does not simply ‘export’ labour abuses like modern slavery out into the global supply chain? - with the risk that British buyers unwittingly support practices that we are trying to stamp out domestically.  

Oral Evidence

On Tuesday 7 January from 2.30pm   

  • Alistair Macrow, CEO at McDonalds, UK and Ireland 
  • Claire Lorains, Group Quality, Technical and Sustainability Director at Tesco 
  • Andrew Opie, Director of Food and Sustainability at The British Retail Consortium 

At approximately 3:30pm 

  • Yinan Zhu, EMEA General Counsel at SHEIN 
  • Stephen Heary, Senior Legal Counsel at Temu 
  • Leonard Klenner, Senior Compliance Manager at Temu 

At approximately 4:30pm 

  • Eleanor Lyons, UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner 
  • Margaret Beels OBE, Director of Labour Market Enforcement at Department for Business and Trade 

Further information

Image: House of Commons