| For at least five years there have been media exposes, research reports and at least one official inquiry raising concerns about worker exploitation in Leicester, England, a city that has been at the heart of British garment manufacturing since the 17th century. To get some action taken, it only took a global pandemic. Last week Boohoo Group, the online purveyor of £5 ($6.33) dresses, faced allegations that some suppliers underpaid staff and forced them to work in factories during lockdown without proper ventilation or hand sanitizers. The reaction has been immediate and swift: Boohoo's market value fell by 1.4 billion pounds last week, #boycottboohoo has trended on social media, seven U.K. authorities are carrying out inspections in Leicester to check for modern slavery offenses, and the online retailer has hired Alison Levitt, a former U.K. public prosecutor, for an independent review of its supply chain. Now, another company, Quiz Plc, has become entangled in the issue.  Photographer: Dana Pleasant/Getty Images North America Photographer: Dana Pleasant/Getty Images North America The question is, why now? What has happened that has made everyone sit up and notice, moreso say than when Mary Creagh, a British member of parliament, last year accused the government of ignoring evidence she had uncovered showing garment workers were "criminally underpaid." Or when the University of Leicester published a 57-page report in 2015 detailing "widespread and severe violations of work and employment laws." The answer has to be the pandemic. As a nation with a ghastly death toll from Covid-19 leaves months of lockdown, public health and safety concerns are paramount. The thought of workers forced to labor in secret in factories with closed doors and windows and no hand sanitizers has captured the imagination in a way that reports of employees taking home 3.50 pounds an hour has not. Even investors, who are sometimes slow to act on environmental, social and governance issues, are taking note. Standard Life Aberdeen, a large shareholder in Boohoo, sold down most of its stake and said the company's response has been "inadequate." In 2013, a garment factory collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that killed more than 1,000 people sparked worldwide criticism and drove some significant changes in the operations and transparency of global brands. It remains to be seen if the latest allegations will propel lasting change in Leicester's garment industry, but if does it will be a rare positive from the pandemic.—Deirdre Hipwell | 
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