Holding corporations accountable. Protecting worker rights.
News: The $4 million severance payout that almost didn't happen
NPR's Tim McDonnell explains the importance of this $4 million pay out—what the WRC believes to be the largest amount workers have won in a single case of illegally denied severance—for PT Kahoindah Citragarment workers. Click here to learn more about this case.
Commentary: Despite progress, gender-based violence and harassment is still a reality for garment workers globally
For garment workers around the world, gender-based violence in the workplace is the rule rather than the exception. What does it take to shift the needle? The WRC's Rola Abimourched responds.
Report: Transparency is a growing trend
New report by the Transparency Pledge coalition documents the ways in which transparency has become a widely accepted step toward better identifying and addressing labor abuses in garment supply chains.
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Surge in Garment Industry Transparency: Laws Needed to Ensure Companies Adopt Human Rights Practices
(New York, December 18, 2019) – Clothing and footwear brands and retailers have dramatically increased their disclosure of information about their supply chains in the past three years, a coalition of unions, human rights groups, and labor rights advocates said in a joint report released today. In 2016, the coalition created the Transparency Pledge, a…
Largest Sum Ever: WRC recovers US$4.5 Million in unpaid severance
In the fall of 2019, two thousand Indonesian workers received what the WRC believes to be the largest amount workers have won in a single case of illegally denied severance. On July 2, 2018, the management of PT Kahoindah Citragarment (Kahoindah), an Indonesian garment factory owned by the Korean firm Hojeon LLC, had announced that…
When ‘business as usual’ costs lives: workers in Pakistan call for a binding safety agreement
By Christie Miedema and Liana Foxvog – In Karachi, Pakistan, 11 September 2012 is ingrained into people’s minds as the day on which over 250 people did not return home to their families after a long day of work. A fire in the Ali Enterprises garment factory had spread rapidly, fed by the bales of finished product…
Lesotho garment workers struck landmark deals to tackle gender-based violence. Here’s how it happened.
By Rola Abimourched, Libakiso Matlho, Thusoana Ntlama & Robin Runge – Gender-based violence and harassment, including sexual harassment in the world of work, are among the most pervasive human rights violations and most effective tools at preventing gender equality. Female garment workers—who are the majority of the global garment workforce—are systematically targeted and experience the…
Challenging the Status Quo: Helping Workers Protect their Associational Rights in Myanmar
Freedom of association is a fundamental and critical right allowing workers to collectively demand better working conditions. Yet factory management around the world often deny workers this right, illegally terminating union leaders, and sometimes employing violence to quell union organizing. Buyers at the top of the supply chain generally fail to detect such violations or…