SOUTH ASIA - The Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) worker rights group is taking legal action against global fashion companies including H&M and Levi's over the 'wage theft' of supply chain garment workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
AFWA last week published a new report which claimed that the majority of garment workers in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, India, Cambodia and Bangladesh had lost money to which they were legally entitled.
It argues that the factories which employed these workers act not as independent suppliers but as contracted manufacturers and that the brands which source from them should be regarded as joint employers and held accountable.