Gucci announced it was replacing managers at its flagship store in the booming southern Chinese city of Shenzhen after allegations by five former employees they had been working in sweatshop conditions.

The former employees at the three-floor store in the Chinese city across the border from Hong Kong alleged they had been on their feet 12 hours a day and needed permission to drink water and for toilet breaks, which were limited to five minutes.

The former employees alleged that a pregnant employee had been warned for eating an apple during the work day. “It was a kind of torture for us,” they alleged in the letter. “Short rest, water or food was [denied] even for a pregnant employee.”

In a statement, Gucci did not respond to the specific allegations but said it had conducted “thorough investigations” and in addition to replacing concerned senior staff at the store, it had hired external consultants to conduct a comprehensive review of the organisation’s “business practices in China”.

Geoffrey Crothall, from labour advocacy group China Labour Bulletin, said the incident illustrated that “the pressures being put on service workers are just as bad as those in factories. Service workers are actually falling behind those in factories on pay and conditions.”

Last year, after a wave of suicides at Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer for Apple and other electronics manufacturers, and strikes at factories in southern China, manufacturing employees in the region have seen double-digit increases in their salaries. However, earlier this year, two Hong Kong based NGOs that conducted interviews with workers alleged employees at Foxconn plants in Chengdu in south-western China and Shenzhen had been pressured not to take days off. Foxconn said the overtime was voluntary.