How Fashion Advocacy Won $8.3 Million For Victoria Secret Garment Workers

The closure of Clover Ltd’s Brilliant Alliance Thailand factory on March 11, 2021 left 1,388 without jobs. These unionized garment workers made products for Victoria Secret, Torrid and Lane Bryant. Yet, they were not paid full severance pay when the factory closed. Workers demanded proper compensation alongside their union, while activists and consumers joined in solidarity through the #PayYourWorkers campaign. This campaign demanded a binding agreement to be signed and the creation of a fund to ensure workers be paid their legally owed severance pay. On May 25, 2022 garment workers won! They received compensation after a full year of fighting. 

This was a long, drawn out battle, but a historic victory for garment workers. In March 2021, Thai’s government ruled that Clover Ltd’s Brilliant Alliance needed to pay 242.22 million baht in compensation since they violated Thai labor laws. Thailand requires companies to give one month's notice and settle financial commitments to its workers before it ceases operations. Brilliant Alliance Thai Global (BAT), owned by Clover Group, a Hong- Kong based garment manufacturer, never paid the severance due. They claimed they had no money to pay their garment workers. And so their total amount accrued to a whopping $8.3 million dollars.

Workers locked out of Thai lingerie factory. Photo Credit: Industriall Global Union

Consequences of Zero Accountability 

Brilliant Alliance Thai Global (BAT) avoidance to pay negatively affected its former garment workers quality of life. Out of work, and with zero relief, it devastated workers and left their families struggling to survive. 

Fast fashion brands and manufacturers need to be held accountable to ensure the livelihood of garment workers. It is clear that BAT closed its factory illegally and left its workers to starve. 

However, in a public statement, the company explained that it “is not and has never been BAT’s intention to walk away from the legal care and entitlement of employees”. Yet BAT’s actions did the exact opposite. 

Before the factory closed, BAT even asked its workers to accept lower wages and benefits due to canceled orders caused by the pandemic. Workers did not agree because they were already being exploited and overworked. 

Brilliant Alliance Thai Global workers. Photo Credit: Noo Roong

BAT’s Garment Workers Hard Won Labor Justice 

Justice was won through union power and international campaigning done in solidarity across different organizations. The Triumph International Union, affiliated with the Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand, represented and supported the garment workers. Meanwhile, the #PayYouWorkers campaign coalition was supported by the likes of Clean Clothes Campaign and Remake. This helped build the pressure for workers to be given their legally owed severance pay. 

Victoria Secret finally decided to finance the payments owed to the garment workers through a loan agreement with Brilliance Alliance Thai Global (BAT). However, Sycamore Partners, the company parent of Lane Bryant and Torrid, decided to not participate. This is despite the factory making products for these two brands. 

After winning the severance pay, Triumph International Union hopes they can become a model across the world to help resolve similar future cases. Wage theft, the refusal to pay workers wages, has become common practice in the fashion industry during the pandemic. Brands have canceled their clothing orders due to the reduced clothing demand. This has left factories unable and/or unwilling to pay workers for the clothing they already made.

Victoria Secret garment workers protesting against unpaid wages and severance pay in front of Brilliant Alliance Thai Global Ltd. Photo Credit: Industriall Global Union

And this particular case is historic since $8.3 million is the most any fashion brand has ever given for a wage theft case. It has meant the equivalent of more than two years worth of wages for each worker. Some garment workers even ended up receiving up to 4 years of pay! This is a huge difference in the face of the pandemic.

Clover Ltd’s Brilliant Alliance Thailand garment workers had been pouring their blood, sweat and tears into their work for over decades (literally 15 years). Their fight to receive what was justly owned is needed for all garment workers found across the globe. Workers, unions and international solidarity must continue to work together to ensure explotation of garment workers does not continue.