Yahoo Finance 
Health Secretary Has 'Significant Concerns' About Leicester Clothing Factories
Coronavirus has changed everything. Make sense of it all with the Waugh Zone, our evening politics briefing. Sign up now.
The health secretary has said he has “significant concerns” about employment practices at clothing factories in Leicester, amid reports that workers are being paid less than the minimum wage and are operating without social distancing.
Matt Hancock said there had been coronavirus outbreaks at food and clothing producers in the city as home secretary Priti Patel insisted “sweatshops” will not be tolerated.
It came after the Sunday Times reported allegations that workers in Leicester’s Jaswal Fashions factory making clothes for Boohoo brand Nasty Gal were being paid as little as £3.50 an hour and operating without social distancing measures in place.
The east Midlands city was last week placed into the UK’s first local lockdown amid an outbreak of Covid-19 cases.
Hancock said stopping the spread of the virus was “the number one problem” and stressed that “very significant fines” could be handed out or businesses shut down if employment laws and government workplace safety guidance were found to have been breached.
“There are some quite significant concerns about the employment practices in some of the clothing factories in Leicester” says @MattHancock
The health secretary confirms #COVID19 outbreaks in food and clothing factories in Leicester.#Ridgehttps://t.co/B0FBywYVjgpic.twitter.com/CbzIIkk1vW— Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) July 5, 2020
He did not say if any fines had yet been levied but told Sky News’s Ridge on Sunday: “We’re not just asking nicely, we are very clear to businesses that these are their responsibilities”.
He added: “We’ve seen outbreaks in food factories and in clothing factories. There are some quite significant concerns about some of the employment practices in some of the clothing factories in Leicester.
“They are important problems to deal with, but the number one problem that...
