concrete living wage demands and a regional living wage formulation, the Asia Floor Wage, was developed by a group
of trade unions in Asia who demanded that brands pay this gap. Analysis of these and other credible living wage
benchmarks con rms that wages on average need to triple. The calculation of the living wage contribution then
factors in variations per country as well as wage increases reached through collective bargaining and translate this
into a percentage to be added to the price paid by the brand. The proposed agreement will also include strong
protections for workers’ right to organize and the guaranteed access to a 24-hour complaint mechanism to report
violations to the agreement. Grassroots unions, brands and labor rights groups will be signatories to the agreement
and signatory brands will be required to terminate business with suppliers that violates the agreement. If they don’t,
they will face legal action as the agreement is legally-binding.
WageForward.org (http://WageForward.org) has launched during a time in which many workers’ main concern has
shifted from the lack of payment of a living wage to sometimes a lack of any payment whatsoever. The Covid-19
pandemic has hit the sector brutally hard: hundreds of thousands of garment workers are owed billions of dollars.
Ineke Zeldenrust, International Coordinator of the Clean Clothes Campaign said, “Brands’ behaviour during the
pandemic has once again shown us the complete ruthlessness of brands towards the people making the products
they are selling. Workers are bearing the brunt of this crisis. Their wages are deferred or simply not paid. This
happened on a massive scale since March and is unfortunately still ongoing.”
“The fact that these workers have been paid poverty wages all along means that they do not have savings to fall back
on. Had they been paid a living wage over the past couple of years, it would have been a very different, less ugly
picture,” Theresa Haas, Director of Transnational Strategies, Worker-driven Social Responsibility Network.
WageForward.org (http://WageForward.org) highlights how immediate action is required from brands to ensure
workers receive full wages and bene ts, including severance, during the pandemic. Proposals have been developed
for an Enforceable Severance Guarantee Fund ( le:///home/alexandra/Downloads/Fund.), a Wage Assurance
(https://cleanclothes.org/../../../campaigns/pay-your-workers/covid-19-wage-assurance) and a Supply-Chain Relief
Contribution (https://asia. oorwage.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Brand-SRC-for-Garment-Workers-Impacted-byCOVID-19.pdf). The remedy for workers’ immediate needs must be combined with these types of enforceable
measures in order to prevent future human rights violations in the global garment industry.
published 2021-01-20
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