K.P. Textil

The WRC investigated a May 2020 outbreak of Covid-19 at K.P. Textil that resulted in one-third of the factory’s employees contracting the virus and, unfortunately, led to the death of one worker. 

Following the WRC’s engagement with factory buyers AEO Inc. and Gap, Inc., these buyers confirmed that factory management took appropriate remedial action with regard to quarantine of workers and implementation of health and safety protocols to help prevent a future outbreak of Covid-19.

With regard to the death of one worker as a result of Covid-19, buyers and factory management reported that the worker’s widow would receive long-term income replacement for her family through a Guatemalan government fund established for this purpose. Given that the application process to receive this fund would take up to two years, the WRC recommended to buyers that the factory provide the worker’s widow funds during the interim period until such time as her application for the government fund was approved. The factory agreed to make this payment in May 2021, thereby remedying violations of Guatemalan law and university codes of conduct.

Read More:

• WRC Case Brief: K.P. Textil (Guatemala) – June 25, 2021