Panorama Exposes Brutal Bangladeshi Working Conditions

PANORAMA will tonight show a documentary focusing on the working conditions of Bangladeshi factories, entitled Dying For A Bargain.The BBC investigation will expose how employees are forced to work 19-hour days, even being locked in the factory overnight.

The programme secretly filmed workers making clothes for supermarket Lidl, with their hours starting at 7am and ending at 2.30am.A security guard was recorded locking the building's front gate at 1.15am, before they were finally reopened at 2.30am.The salary for such agruelling day is £2.However, when a Panorama reporter visited the factory acting as a western buyer, he was supplied with timesheets that stated that workers' shifts had ended nine hours earlier.

The revelation comes after a series of factory fires and collapses in recent months, in which many employees were killed after being unable to escape because exits were locked.The most publicised of these was the collapse of the Rana Plaza in April, in which 1,129 were killed and an estimated 2,500 injured were rescued.

Another factory, which allegedly produces clothes for Gap and H&M, was also found to be hiding long working hours.Working days sometimes started at 7am and finished at 10.30pm, although when a reporter visited the building posing as a buyer, he was told that daily shifts were just 10 hours.

Lidl described the discoveries as "concerning", while H&M - who signed a pledge to protect the safety of Bangladesh garment workers in May - said that overtime "remains a major challenge".

"H&M set high standards to all of our suppliers and regularly monitor how well they live up to them," an H&M spokesperson told us."In order to follow up on how our business partners comply with the requirement of our Code of Conduct and to support their progress, we monitor them regularly through our Full Audit Programme.Together with our suppliers we have started several projects in regards to overtime, for example aiming to decrease overtime by increasing efficiency."

Gap said that its clothes make up only five per cent of the factory's output and will not place any more orders there, releasing the following statement:

"Gap Inc is committed to safeguarding the rights of the people who work in the factories where our products are made.Our suppliers are required to comply with our Code of Vendor Conduct, which includes a requirement that the factory complies with all applicable laws, regulations and industry standards on working hours, and that workers may refuse overtime without threat of penalty, punishment or dismissal.We regularly audit factories supplying Gap, and this factory was last audited in March 2013."

Panorama:Dying For A Bargain will be shown at 8.30pm

tonight on BBC One.