Britain’s largest retailer Tesco will today come under fire over 7p an hour garment workers in Bangladesh as shareholders prepare to hail the company’s record £3 billion profits at its annual meeting.

Leading British retailers Tesco and Primark today are accused of cashing in on the recession with cheap fashion sales by exploiting overseas garment workers.

A Polish priest has defended his decision to allow his parish to be used to advertise and recruit staff for a new Tesco hypermarket, despite previous church criticisms of the UK retail giant.

Workers are still paid only 5p an hour for 80-hour weeks producing clothes for leading UK retailers Primark, Tesco and Asda in Bangladesh, says a charity. This is despite the publication a year ago of a report which exposed their 'sweatshops'.

Britain's supermarket giant Tesco is under fire from Polish church and trade union officials after it ignored a new ban on trading during Roman Catholic festivals which are also public holidays. The shopping transnational is accused of "trampling" on workers' rights.

Fairtrade campaigners have expressed their alarm at the announcement by Asda Wal-Mart that it has slashed the price of loose bananas by approximately 17p per kilogram (kg) to 68p per kg.