Leading designer clothes made for as little as 35 dollars in Sydney

Sydney, Aug.23 (ANI): Leading designer clothes which are sold in stores for up to 600 dollars a piece are being made for as little as 35 dollars by an underpaid army of migrant workers in western Sydney garages and apartments.

An investigation into Sydney's sweatshops by The Sunday Telegraph has found leading fashion designers, including Nicola Finetti, Natasha Gan and Ginger and Smart, are paying Vietnamese and Chinese families between 10 and 35 dollars to produce clothes later sold in stores for at least 10 times the price.

The paper's reporters visited13 outworker operations in Sydney - mostly in the west - where high-end fashion houses outsource the manufacture of their garments.

The scene was the same in every home: glamorous designs being sown in cluttered conditions by workers who said they were not paid enough and who also feared they would lose their jobs to even cheaper labour in China.

The revelation has prompted Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard to call on Australian fashion designers to take responsibility for where their garments were made and ensure fair pay.

Instead, Ginger and Smart promptly cancelled its contract with a factory after learning of The Sunday Telegraph's visit accompanied by officials of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union. (ANI)