Watch this recorded panel from the 2022 OECD Forum for a discussion of the campaign behind & implications of the precedent-setting passage of California’s SB62, The Garment Worker Protection Act.
The 2021 passage of California’s SB62 The Garment Worker Protection Act addresses the root causes of wage theft in apparel supply chains by, 1) eliminating the piece rate system of pay, a common vehicle through which sub-minimum wages are enabled, and 2) by holding brands jointly liable for the wages stolen from garment workers.
The bill is also an example of extraordinary worker-led organizing, broad and deep coalition building, and remarkable solidarity from businesses and consumers that succeeded in closing a major regulatory gap in the United State’s largest apparel producing hub. SB62 is the most far-reaching victory of the global brand accountability movement securing legal responsibility on brands for what is a workers’ most important human right: Fair pay.
This panel explores joint liability for wage theft within the greater brand accountability movement in the fashion industry through the lens of SB62, featuring key members of the coalition that developed and won the bill and advocates fighting for joint liability on brands in Asia.
The discussion focuses on how the pandemic reshaped and sharpened the movement for corporate accountability and will dig into how SB62’s specific legal approach was developed, the political and legal challenges to holding brands responsible for wages, and offers an exploration and comparison between SB62 and the Asia Floor Wage Alliance’s work on legal liability for wage theft across Asia and joint liability’s ability to work in other nations and states. The panel further discusses how and if these disparate projects for brand accountability can be brought together into a more cohesive global effort and how SB62 organizing techniques can be leveraged to secure rights for workers in other low-wage and fissured industries.
PANELISTS
Marissa Nuncio, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Garment Worker Center
Nivedita Jayaram, Asia Coordinator, Asia Floor Wage Alliance
Ayesha Barenblat, CEO, Remake
Elizabeth L. Cline, Director of Advocacy and Policy, Remake
Originally recorded for the OECD Forum.
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