In April 2020, a minimum wage increase went into effect in the Indian state of Karnataka, one of the country's largest centers of garment manufacturing. Garment factory owners producing for leading apparel brands have refused to pay. As a result, 400,000 garment workers across over a thousand factories were cheated of the legal minimum wage.
In February 2022, after 22 months of refusing to do so, 14 major Karnataka garment suppliers finally committed to pay the legal minimum wage, along with all arrears owed, to their workers; however, some suppliers are still refusing to pay. You can see which suppliers have still not committed to paying in this table on the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) website.
Of the $58.7 million owed to garment workers in Karnataka due to accruing wage theft since April 2020, the WRC has identified firm commitments to pay their workers from suppliers representing $28.6 million of these arrears - well over half of the total owed. Verification is ongoing to ensure all workers receive the full amount they are owed.
“The brands who buy from my factory demand quality and for the clothes to be shipped in time but aren’t bothered with what happens to me.”
Workers report that the impact of not receiving this increase has been concrete and significant: reduced access to food staples, lost housing, lost schooling for their children.
According to the Worker Rights Consortium, this is the worst wage theft they have ever seen in the global garment industry and has resulted in a reduction, in real terms, in workers’ already precarious standard of living.
Brands were aware of the theft and had allowed it to continue. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre has compiled brand responses here.
During February 2022, in a major breakthrough in the efforts of Garment and Textile Workers’ Union in Karnataka, combined with growing pressure on brands from activists around the world, Shahi Exports, the biggest garment manufacturer in India, agreed to pay their workers what they are owed. (For more context, check out coverage by the Guardian and VICE News.) After this first victory, we kept up the pressure on brands and soon more suppliers committed to pay!
“If we had got the wage increase, we could have at least eaten vegetables a few times a month. Instead, I have only fed my family rice and chutney.”
