I. INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The world’s garment workers have been among the hardest hit by the economic ravages of the coronavirus pandemic. Hours and wages have declined for many of those lucky enough to keep their jobs,1 and millions have been fired outright,2 as apparel brands and retailers slashed production volumes throughout their supply chains.3 WRC Verified Post-dismissal Wage Theft at 31 Factories Supplying Leading Fashion Brands Since the industry’s chronically low wages left most garment workers with no savings on the eve of the crisis4 and since most governments in apparel exporting countries provide little or no unemployment benefits,5 the only thing standing between an out-of-work garment worker and immediate poverty for her family are the legally mandated severance benefits6 that most garment workers are due upon termination. New research by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) reveals that many workers are being denied some or all of this essential compensation, in violation of the law and the labor rights obligations of the brands and retailers whose clothes they sewed. The WRC has identified 31 export garment factories, in nine countries, where there is definitive evidence that the factory fired workers and then failed to pay them severance they legally earned. In some cases, workers have received partial payment; in others, they have received nothing. In total, the wage theft at these 31 facilities robbed 37,637 workers of $39.8 million. This is an average of more than a thousand dollars (US) per person, which is about five months’ wages for the typical garment worker. Among the brands implicated in these cases are adidas, Amazon, H&M, Inditex, Next, Nike, Target, and Walmart—all companies that have made substantial profits during the pandemic.7 The only thing standing between an out-of-work garment worker and immediate poverty for her family are the legally mandated severance benefits that most garment workers are due upon termination. Theft of Severance Appears to Be Widespread in the Apparel Supply Chain during Covid-19 More disturbing, these cases appear to be the tip of an iceberg. The WRC has also identified an additional 210 export apparel factories, in 18 countries, where initial evidence indicates that workers have been deprived of legally mandated severance but where there is, as of yet, insufficient documentation to confirm the violation definitively. Most of these factories supplied well-known fashion brands and retailers. Based on the percentage of valid cases of