Among other accusations, Monday night’s C4 programme into Britain’s cheap clothing industry claimed agency workers TRS supplied to retailer Boohoo’s Burnley depot could have their contracts terminated for minor breaches of a three-strike policy. These included showing up a few minutes late or mistakenly mixing up different kinds of trolleys of goods. 

However, whistleblower Kieron Hardman, a team leader at Boohoo, also told the programme he has been asked to give people strikes for checking the time on their phone and in one instance because somebody was smiling.

Boohoo subsequently offered the programme makers the opportunity to film its Burnley depot openly without having to rely on covert footage, an invitation the company claimed the programme makers declined.

Commenting on the programme’s findings, Melanie Bennett, TRS’ HR manager, told Recruiter in a statement TRS’ directors are disappointed the programme makers failed to take up Boohoo’s offer.

“In our eyes, the issues detailed are at best untrue and at worse portray an image of our business that is wholly inaccurate. Where our team has operated outside of process, we will investigate and take the appropriate action but we refute the majority of the claims made against our business.

“We have worked extremely hard to ensure that the colleagues’ best interests are dealt with in a sensitive, professional and inclusive manner. Without that philosophy, we would not have been able to recruit and retain over 450 colleagues at the facility. We have transferred over 350 colleagues to full-time employment with Boohoo and we will continue to do that.

“Boohoo has given a statement and we stand behind that response to the extent that it relates to TRS, and we will work with Boohoo to deal with and reconcile any issues our colleagues may face in the future.”