Factory Investigations
The WRC has conducted hundreds of factory investigations in more than two dozen countries, many in response to complaints from workers and worker organizations. You can browse case summaries, full public reports, and related documents and background information for many of these investigations below. Reports include detailed information on findings, the WRC’s recommendations for remedies (from reinstatement of illegally fired workers, to urgent safety improvements, to back pay) and whether or not brands and factories have implemented these remedies. Click on a factory name in the results to view the case summary and links to the full report and other documents.
Hulu Garment Co. Ltd.
Country: Cambodia
Last Updated: 2023
Issues: Covid-19, Wage Theft
The apparel industry’s chronically low wages left most garment workers with no savings on the eve of the Covid-19 crisis. Since most governments in apparel exporting countries provide little or no unemployment benefits, the only thing standing between an out-of-work garment worker and immediate poverty for her family in early 2020 were the legally mandated…
Southern Apparel Contractors (Tegra Global)
Country: Honduras
Last Updated: 2023
Issues: Freedom of Association Violations
In 2022, the WRC found violations of freedom of association at Southern Apparel Contractors, a factory in Honduras owned by the US company, Tegra Global. In April 2022, a national transportation shutdown resulted in the factory requiring its employees to “repay” a day of lost wages, which was in violation of the collective bargaining agreement…
JNB Global / Sams and Rudia
Country: Guatemala
Last Updated: 2023
Issues: Wage Theft, Wrongful Termination
The WRC documented violations of worker rights at the Guatemalan garment factory, JNB Global, also known as Sams and Rudia. Violations at this factory occurred when it required all factory employees to sign new employment contracts that illegally falsified their dates of hire. Further violations occurred when JNB Global fired workers who refused to sign….
Winners
Country: Guatemala
Last Updated: 2023
Issues: Freedom of Association Violations, Violence Against Workers, Wrongful Termination
In 2020, the WRC documented serious violations of workers’ rights to freedom of association that occurred at the Winners factory, owned by the Korean multinational company, SAE-A. Union leaders were attacked by mob violence, threatened with death, and forced to resign from their positions. The WRC engaged with SAE-A and with buyers and ultimately the…
Trax Apparel
Country: Cambodia
Last Updated: 2023
Issues: Freedom of Association Violations
The WRC identified multiple violations of Cambodian law and university labor standards at Trax Apparel, a collegiate supplier to adidas, including the illegal firing of eight workers in retaliation for forming a union to seek to better working conditions. After extensive engagement with adidas, management reinstated four of the eight leaders, however, with only partial…
Vald’or
Country: Haiti
Last Updated: 2023
Issues: Wage Theft
Vald’or, a garment factory located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, fully closed operations in January 2022. The US-based company failed to pay the factory’s more than 1,100 workers the severance payments to which they were entitled under the law. Vald’or was also delinquent in other payments to workers, including health and pension payments, which it deducted from…
Centexsa
Country: Guatemala
Last Updated: 2023
Issues: Abuse and Harassment, Freedom of Association Violations, Gender-based Violence and Discrimination
Nine workers were fired due to their exercise of freedom of association. After intervention by the WRC, the factory agreed to several remedial actions.
Shahi Exports Unit 20
Country: India
Last Updated: 2022
Issues: Abuse and Harassment, Freedom of Association Violations
The WRC helped secure the reinstatement of a garment worker leader in Bangalore, India, who was subjected to violent threats, physical assault, and suspension from her job for nine months after protesting verbal abuse and harassment of other workers by supervisors and managers at her factory. Although the facility where the incidents occurred does not…
B.D. Cambodia
Country: Cambodia
Last Updated: 2022
Issues: Freedom of Association Violations, Wrongful Termination
The WRC worked with licensees to resolve a case in which B.D.Cambodia illegally terminated a workplace leader, made a legally binding commitment to reinstate him as part of a mediation process facilitated by the Cambodian government, and then refused to follow through on its commitment. When the worker attempted to return to work at the…
Uni Gears Ltd.
Country: Bangladesh
Last Updated: 2021
Issues: Wage Theft
Uni Gears Ltd. in Gazipur, Bangladesh, a supplier to Outerstuff employing over 1,000 workers, made significant reductions to its workforce beginning in May 2020. Workers testified to the WRC that they were forced to resign under threat of violence; in Bangladesh, workers who resign are entitled to considerably less terminal compensation than those who are…