Country Update and Two Collegiate Case Updates

September 6, 2024

Dear Colleagues,
 
As the school year kicks off, I am writing to provide updates on several items we reported on over the summer.

At Style Avenue, the collegiate factory in El Salvador that closed without paying workers $1.8 million in legally mandated compensation, we completed the distribution of $1.2 million to workers, using funds provided by Outerstuff. There is $600,000 pending, per the schedule agreed between Outerstuff and the WRC. Needless to say, workers were enormously gratified to finally receive the money they earned.

At Everest Apparel, the collegiate factory in Ethiopia where the WRC uncovered and then secured commitments to remediate numerous violations of workers’ rights, one of those commitments was just fulfilled with the payment to workers of tens of thousands of dollars in illegally withheld wages.

Meanwhile, since the last update we shared on our work in Bangladesh to ensure the withdrawal of false criminal cases against workers, the country has undergone an extraordinary transformation. A student-led protest movement stunned the world by ousting a dictator who had held power, and brutalized the population, for 15 years—a regime virtually no one inside or outside Bangladesh thought could be displaced. There was little respect for worker rights under the authoritarian government; the vast improvements in worker safety under the Bangladesh Accord were never matched by gains for workers in other areas. There is now hope that the country will chart a very different course. That hope is matched with concern over how apparel brands will respond to the movement that succeeded in ousting the previous authoritarian regime, resulting in the Prime Minister fleeing the country and being replaced by an interim government, with significant implications for the garment sector.  During this time of instability and new possibilities, we have focused on ensuring that brand practices are responsible and that negative impacts on workers’ rights are minimized.
 
These updates can be found at the following links:
Case Update: Style Avenue (El Salvador)
Case Update: Everest Apparel (Ethiopia)
Bangladesh Country Update
 
Please feel free to reach out with any questions, and I look forward to working with you over the coming school year.
 
Best,

Scott Nova