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In a landmark settlement honoring labor rights, international lingerie model Victoria’s Secret paid $8.3 million to compensate over 1200 sacked Thai garment staff who made bras at a manufacturing facility.
Good Alliance Thai closed down its Samut Prakan manufacturing facility in March 2021 after going bankrupt. However the 1250 laid-off staff – lots of whom had labored on the manufacturing facility for over a decade – didn’t obtain severance payouts mandated below the Thai legislation.
The manufacturing facility additionally produced underwear for plus-size American manufacturers Lane Bryant and Torrid, owned by Sycamore Companions –- however solely Victoria’s Secret contributed to the settlement through a mortgage association with the manufacturing facility’s homeowners.
Victoria’s Secret confirmed in an announcement that an settlement had been reached, however didn’t point out the quantity concerned.
“Over a number of months we had been in energetic communication with the manufacturing facility homeowners to facilitate a decision,” the corporate mentioned.
“We remorse they weren’t finally ready to conclude this matter on their very own so to make sure the employees obtained their full severance quantities owed, Victoria’s Secret agreed to advance the severance funds to the manufacturing facility homeowners,” it added.
Former employee Jitnawatcharee Panad had clocked up 25 years on the manufacturing facility and mentioned over a 3rd of the sacked staff had been girls aged 45 and older.
“If we hadn’t fought for honest compensation, we would not have obtained something,” Jitnawatcharee, who can also be president of Triumph Worldwide Employees’ Union of Thailand, advised Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The doorways of the Labor Ministry had been locked after we went there to hunt assist and the minister did not appear to need to take heed to our drawback.”
The settlement is the largest-ever wage theft settlement at a person garment manufacturing facility, the worldwide staff rights group Solidarity Centre mentioned.
“I feel it is extraordinarily unprecedented and represents a brand new mannequin – the dimensions of severance and curiosity paid on it … in addition to direct engagement by the model,” Solidarity Middle Thailand nation director David Welsh advised the AFP.
For the previous 12 months, sacked staff and Thai union representatives have protested exterior the Authorities Home in Bangkok, calling for his or her pay.
Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand president Prasit Prasopsuk mentioned some protesting staff had been charged with prison offenses, together with violating public gathering guidelines through the pandemic. “This case serves as a lesson sooner or later for the federal government … to make sure that overseas corporations doing enterprise in Thailand allocate some portion of the month-to-month revenue for honest compensation when these corporations stop home operations,” he mentioned.
A Employee Rights Consortium report from April final 12 months mentioned it had documented comparable wage theft instances at 31 garment factories in 9 international locations. The group’s government director Scott Nova mentioned these instances had been simply the “tip of the iceberg” and that the difficulty of wage theft within the garment trade had exploded through the pandemic as clothes orders declined.
He estimated garment staff worldwide had been owed $500 million because of manufacturing facility closures and unpaid severance.
Some staff on the Samut Prakan manufacturing facility had obtained the equal of greater than 4 years’ wages final week, he mentioned.
“It is just like the equal of a employee’s life financial savings … and it is merely stolen. What it means to lose that and get it again is troublesome to seize in phrases,” Nova added.
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