The Asia Floor Wage Alliance recently released a report on Wage Theft, titled "Money Heist : COVID 19 Wage Theft in Global Garment Supply Chains" which studies the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic-induced recession on Asian garment workers employed in the supply chains of major global apparel brands. It highlights wage theft as the most common experience and pre-dominant consequence of the pandemic-induced recession on garment workers, which resulted in a devastating and prolonged humanitarian crisis. 2,185 garment workers employed across 189 supplier factories located in six countries - Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Bangladesh - took part in the survey for the report. Fifteen global fashion brands source their garments from these 189 factories. The report provides wage theft estimates across the surveyed factories of these brands.

The launch of the report and discussion can be viewed here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVUdEXbBLdg

In conjunction with the report, the Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) has also developed a legal strategy based on the concept of “joint employer liability” in order to address unregulated governance gaps in global supply chains. This legal strategy gives garment workers and their unions the possibility of using labour protective frameworks within Asian production countries to challenge the practices of global apparel brands that lead to extreme and wanton labour exploitation.

Using the joint employer liability legal strategy garment workers and their unions in four Asian production countries – India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan – have filed legal claims within their national jurisdictions. They have held global apparel brands liable as joint employers, along with their suppliers, under national laws, for wage violations in their supply chains during Covid-19. This legal strategy is being explored in Bangladesh and Cambodia as well.

The study on wage theft follows previous such reports by the Clean Clothes Campaign, Worker Rights Consortium and the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, all showing that despite making profits, garment brands allegedly failed to protect the workers in their supply chains and their purchasing practices actively contributed to worsening conditions for workers.