The Fashion Industry’s Biggest Case of Wage Theft is Happening Right Now
The Guardian reports that over 400,000 factory workers in the Indian state of Karnataka have been paid below the state’s minimum wage since the start of the global pandemic.
This amounts to a gigantic theft of wages totaling over $54 million.
Currently, these mostly female workers who produce products for well known fashion companies such as Puma, Nike, Zara, Tesco, C&A, Gap, Marks & Spencer and H&M are paid half of what they need to afford daily essentials.
Scott Nova of the The Worker Rights Consortium comments:
It has been almost two years since apparel suppliers have been refusing to pay the legal minimum wage and brands have been letting this continue when they know they are the only ones with the power to stop this widespread wage theft.
So far these companies have released statements demanding their suppliers to match wages in accordance with local laws, but it remains to be seen if any serious actions will be taken.
A recent report by the Clean Clothes Campaign exposed that the amount of stolen wages from workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Indonesia may total in the hundreds of millions.
