1,250 Thai garment workers clinched a win after more than a year, and received back wages owed to them totaling US$8.3 million (around €7.7 million) – averaging just over €6,150 per person, what ever adjusted according to length of employment. This was announced by the Solidarity Center and the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) a few days ago.
The workers had sewn bras for brands like Victoria’s Secret, Lane Bryant and Torrid. They were employed by the Brilliant Alliance garment factory, which closed in March 2021, laying off its workers without the statutory severance pay.
The Thai government ordered the owner, Hong Kong-based Clover Group, to pay severance pay within 30 days. The Clover Group refused, telling the factory’s 1,250 low-wage workers that they had no money and that they should be okay with waiting ten years to get paid in full.
With the support of the Solidarity Center, the Triumph Solidarity Union launched a campaign demanding the severance pay. The WRC and the Solidarity Center contacted Victoria’s Secret and Sycamore, urging them to secure workers’ pay.
The WRC identified other brands that do not work with Brilliant Alliance but have an impact on Clover and a key business partner, Brandix, a Sri Lankan clothing supplier: American Eagle Outfitters, Gap and PVH.
Victoria’s Secret pays
After months of efforts, including campaigns by the Clean Clothes Campaign, Remake and other worker nonprofits participating in the global #PayYourWorkers coalition, Clover agreed to pay workers. Victoria’s Secret committed to fund the payments through a loan to Clover, so all workers received their severance pay and over $1 million in interest last week, as required by Thai law.
“This is a great victory for workers and a testament to the courage of their union and the strength of the international solidarity campaign they have supported,” said David Welsh, Solidarity Center country director for Thailand, in a statement.
“The severance pay these workers earned is effectively their life savings, which were stolen from them when they were laid off and are now being repaid,” said Scott Nova, Executive Director of the WRC, of the workers who were partially worked in the factory for up to ten years.
Precedent Brilliant Alliance
“Low-wage garment workers, pushed into poverty by the injustice of global supply chains, are nothing new. What is new is that they have not accepted their fate and won. We hope this will become a model for the kind of engagement at national, state, international and brand levels to resolve future instances where garment workers are in similar desperate situations. It’s a historic case given the level of compensation, and hopefully a model for the global apparel industry in terms of direct brand involvement,” Welsh concluded.
Sycamore Partners ignored the pleas and did nothing to assist the workers. “Victoria’s Secret should be very proud of what it has done here. The people who run Sycamore Partners should be ashamed,” Welsh concludes.