30/08/2020 SB 1399 makes retailers accountable for garment worker pay - Los Angeles Times An o ce of a sewing factory in downtown Los Angeles. The owner says he cannot a ord to pay workers the minimum wage. (Claire Hannah Collins / Los Angeles Times) Worker advocates maintain that wage theft goes beyond a handful of retailers and is common in the industry, and the new reforms would fix shortcomings in the original 1999 legislation that have allowed some apparel makers to evade it. “We would not have clamoring by these garment workers who say the piece rate is used to exploit them if in fact they were making much more money,” said the bill’s author, state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), who heard workers’ testimony last year chairing an oversight hearing on a wage-restitution fund for apparel workers. The hearing prompted her to seek proposed reforms from worker advocates, which were distilled into the bill. SB 1399 creates a new category of companies called “brand guarantors” that would be “jointly and severally” liable for any wage theft in the production of clothing. That would make retailers that contract to have clothing made for them responsible for a wage violation even if it was committed by an apparel shop hired by its manufacturing contractor, something advocates say is very difficult to do now and relatively rare. ADVERTISEMENT Critics say that joint liability for third-party violations would make “any person or entity in the clothing industry” liable, including dry cleaners, personal shoppers and secondhand retailers, according to a letter of opposition by the California Chamber of Commerce signed by 18 other groups. Hadl said the criticisms are wild exaggerations intended to confuse legislators. She said the bill only creates liability for entities that contract to have clothes made in California, such as a retailer that hires apparel companies to produce clothing to its specifications for its private labels. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-08-17/fashion-brands-garment-workers-sb1399-joint-liability-piece-rate 6/13