The WRC’s engagement with top US retailers has secured reinstatement with full back pay for nine workers who were fired in 2022 and 2023 from a garment factory in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for leading or joining protests against poverty wages. Haitian garment workers, who are among the lowest-paid workers in the world, struggle to survive amidst a country in political and economic chaos.
The WRC found that the factory’s firing of the nine workers violated their right to freedom of association, in direct contravention to Haitian law, international labor standards, and buyer codes of conduct. In 2022, seven factory workers were fired by the company for leading a protest for better pay. In 2023, the factory dismissed two more workers, firings which the WRC also determined to be in retaliation for these workers participating in wage protests and joining an independent union.
After the factory management refused to reinstate the workers, the WRC contacted major US retailers that were buyers from the factory, calling on them to require the factory’s owner, Hansae Trading, to ensure that these firings, which violated their codes of conduct for suppliers, were reversed and fully remedied.
Two of these retailers, Target and Gap, confirmed to the WRC that had asked Hansae to ensure full remediation of the violations. The WRC also contacted Walmart, but this retailer did not indicate whether or not it had engaged with Hansae to urge its supplier to remedy the violations.
On January 27, 2025, Hansae Haiti made offers of reinstatement to all nine workers and subsequently paid them the back wages for the period of time since they were fired from the factory. Seven of the nine workers received more than two and a half years of back wages. The two remaining workers, both of whom were dismissed in May 2023, received more than one and a half years’ worth of back wages.
This outcome shows again that, even where the most desperate circumstances prevail, in-depth investigation of labor abuses and forceful engagement with major brands can successfully vindicate workers’ right to speak out against poverty wages.