OECD Side Session: Transforming the Garment Sector with Brand Accountability
OECD Side Session: Transforming the Garment Sector with Brand Accountability
A discussion on joint liability for wage theft, comparing California’s SB62 and AFWA’s work on legal liability for wage theft across Asia
This panel explored joint liability for wage theft within the greater brand accountability movement in the fashion industry through the lens of SB62, featuring key members of the coalition that developed and won the bill and advocates fighting for joint liability on brands in Asia.
PANELISTS
Nivedita Jayaram, Asia Coordinator, Asia Floor Wage Alliance
Marissa Nuncio, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Garment Worker Center
Ayesha Barenblat, CEO, Remake
Elizabeth L. Cline, Director of Advocacy and Policy, Remake
The discussion focused on how the pandemic reshaped and sharpened the movement for corporate accountability and dug into how SB62’s specific legal approach was developed, the political and legal challenges to holding brands responsible for wages, and offered an exploration and comparison between SB62 and the Asia Floor Wage Alliance’s work on legal liability for wage theft across Asia and joint liability’s ability to work in other nations and states.
We discussed how and if these disparate projects for brand accountability can be brought together into a more cohesive global effort and how SB62 organizing techniques could be leveraged to secure rights for workers in other low-wage and fissured industries.