Did you know that the clothes that we buy on the UK's high streets come from some of the world's poorest countries? Factories with very bad conditions called sweatshops produce many of the products we buy. Workers around the world, mainly women, suffer from really low wages and exploitation. They are forced to work excessive hours and are denied the right to join a trade union. We have campaigned against this as we demand a fashion industry that respects workers rights.

In Bangladesh:

- Factory workers earn between £25 and £32 a month. This is far below the living wage

- 80% of workers work from 8am until 8pm or 10pm. This is over the legal limit.

- Three quarters of the women had been verbally abused at work and half had been beaten.

- On 24th April, over 1000 people were killed and thousands were injured in the collapse of a factory called Rana Plaza. This was not an accident; the day before the disaster, building inspectors had noticed massive cracks in the building and ordered the workers to evacuate. However, the next day the workers were forced to return to work, even though the building clearly wasn't safe.

- Since this disaster, many companies have signed the Bangladesh Safety Accord, promising in a legally binding agreement to make factories safe. However, some companies have refused to sign it and have still not paid compensation to the victims of the disaster.

Using this petition, we will try to persuade the Foreign Secretary, Phillip Hammond, to require all retailers on the UK high street to sign up to the Fire and Building Safety Accord in Bangladesh and pay a living way.