Reading this week’s assignment, I instantly thought of the company known as Shein. Anytime I need clothes for an event or simply just want to add clothes to my closet, I head straight to Shein.

Shein is a Chinese online global fast fashion retailer, founded in 2008. It is known for its affordable products, such as clothes, home decor, makeup, jewelry, accessories, and more. According to Shein’s about us page, they state, “We are a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and support the ten principles focused on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. However, the company’s policy regarding employee labor has always been a topic of discussion. For today’s assignment, I would like to focus on their steps toward sustainability and employee relations.

Shein is globally known for their variety of trendy, cheap, and affordable clothes. But their variety and cheap clothes mean a more stressful work environment for their employees. According to Shein’s labor policy, they “provide health and wellness support, which may take the form of training, benefits, and other resources, to its employees to promote awareness. Shein also works hard to identify potential risks to the health and safety of its staff and mitigate those risks in a timely manner with consideration of respected guidance on the given matter.” Their policy sounds like they do somewhat take care of their employees, however, that in fact is not the case. Society jumped in and the company was found to have under-age, underpaid, and overworked employees. Unfortunately, Shein has yet to make public disclosures on any information on the following steps to fix these labor conditions. Instead, the company decided to distribute gifts to their manufacturers’ frontline workers and their families every spring. As well as their “Spotlight” program issuing CNY ¥1 million per year to support the education of frontline workers’ children. Their ” solutions ” do not help their laborer’s hard-working conditions. This unfortunately implements that Shein may not have any intention of changing the harsh workplace of their employees. An employee was even told to delete all her social media for trying to celebrate the success of Shein’s expansion. The lack of transparency attracted unwanted media attention, as well as society questioning whether Shein’s low prices are sustainable while maintaining high ethical standards. 

Having looked at all this information, I believe in order for Shein or any company to be a more sustainable business with a good workplace for employees, the company should not only focus on their customers but their workers as well. If workers feel safe and valued in their workplace, the company will do better in sales and products. It is important to start now than later, especially with all the attention the media is bringing forward to Shein that could possibly cause them to have to shut down. Employees should be treated as humans and shown value to the company, they should also be appreciated, so from time to time, it wouldn’t hurt to celebrate their achievements. Another important thing to note is they should be paid accordingly, so they can actually live off what they make instead of still struggling.