When the garment factory Haiti Premier Apparel closed in April 2023, roughly 100 of its former workers in that country did not receive their legally required severance. However, thanks to a contribution from the US workwear company Careismatic Brands, which is a former buyer from the factory, the workers will now be paid in full. These payments, totaling $70,000, represent an average of more than eight months’ wages for each of these workers.
When Haiti Premier Apparel closed in 2023, the factory reported that it was able to pay only a small part of its severance obligations to workers, because its business had been ransacked during the ongoing, widespread violence and political chaos in the country.
The factory’s owners reported, however, that two of the factory’s former buyers, the US workwear companies, Cintas and Superior Uniform Group, had contributed funds which enabled them to pay severance to most of the former employees. Yet, even with these contributions, more than one year after the factory’s closure, roughly 100 of the factory’s former workers still had not been paid their legally due compensation.
Therefore, the WRC engaged with a third former buyer from the factory, Careismatic Brands. To its credit, Careismatic committed to contribute the $70,000 needed to complete the severance payments still due to these workers. The distribution of these funds to the eligible workers is expected to be completed this month.
In making this humanitarian contribution, Careismatic Brands joins a growing list of apparel brands that are addressing the pervasive issue of nonpayment of legally owed severance to workers when garment factories close. Garment workers in Haiti, in particular, are in dire need of these funds as the country and its garment industry continue to face widespread gang violence, political instability, and social unrest.
Since 2023, the WRC has successfully secured payment of more than $2 million in legally due severance for thousands of garment workers in Haiti through contributions from major apparel and workwear brands like PVH, Gildan, Aramark Uniform Services, and Edwards Garment. Like Careismatic Brands, these companies have acted responsibly to ensure that workers in Haiti who lose their jobs when factories close are not also deprived of the severance they earned producing garments for US companies and consumers.