Workers who sewed for Victoria’s Secret, Torrid, Lane Bryant robbed of $8.5 million
Clover Ltd. workers protest in Thailand (photo credit: Industriall)
The Brilliant Alliance factory in Thailand – owned by Clover Ltd and producing for Victoria’s Secret, Torrid, and Lane Bryant – shut its doors in March 2021.
Clover not only fired all 1,388 workers without notice, it has also refused to pay them the $8.5 million dollars in severance it legally owes them.
The Thai government ordered the company to pay the severance in full within thirty days of closure, as the law requires. Clover told workers they will have to wait ten years.
“It is extremely disappointing that the company violated basic labour laws and ignored the order of the government,” said union leader Prasit Prasopsuk. “We cannot accept [this].” The union says workers cannot wait a decade to be paid money they legally earned and that their families desperately need.
On average, Clover Ltd. owes each worker $6,500 – which is more than two years’ wages for a typical Thai garment worker. So far, it hasn’t paid a penny.
Many of these workers sewed lingerie for Victoria’s Secret for 15 years, but Victoria’s Secret, Lane Bryant, and Torrid refuse to help them.
“CEO Martin Waters is exploiting the workers who make clothes for Victoria’s Secret. In two years he earns as much as we – more than a thousand workers – are owed in severance. We have been cheated out of our severance that we need in order to be able to take care of our kids and our parents.”
Former Brilliant Alliance Thai Global workers urge Victoria's Secret to ensure they receive their full legally owed severance. (photo by DW.)
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Photo credit: Industriall
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“It is unacceptable that the company unilaterally and unfairly laid off workers without the legal notice of period and legal payments. The behaviour of the management clearly violates the Labour Laws in the country as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as workers’ compensation is a human right. It is clear that this violation also contradicts your customers’ codes of conduct, such as Victoria’s Secret, Torrid and Ascena Group.”
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Workers found the gates shut when they arrived for work. (Photo credit: Industriall)
“It has been very hard for us and our families. We have had to take out loans or ask our relatives who often live in the countryside for help, in order to have our kids continue at school. We are also getting older, so it is not easy for us to find new jobs. Our families are suffering because we don’t have any income. If we had our severance, we could have invested it for our families’ future.”
Cover photo credit: Rungkarn Intarasopa