Dive Brief:
- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y, formally reintroduced the Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change Act to the U.S. Senate on Thursday, according to a release posted by her office.
- The FABRIC Act intends to enforce minimum wage standards for garment workers, eliminate piece rate pay and hold brands and manufacturers accountable for wage violations, with new liability measures to combat unsafe working conditions. It would also introduce recordkeeping and transparency measures and create a $50 million per year program to support domestic manufacturing.
- The bill was previously proposed in May 2022, but stalled in committee and faced opposition from industry organizations including the American Apparel & Footwear Association. The revised bill has the support of Congressman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y, in the House of Representatives, and has been endorsed by more than 200 brands, labor unions and nonprofit organizations.
Dive Insight:
Garment workers “suffer the second-highest rate of wage theft of all workers” in the U.S., according to a fact sheet on the FABRIC Act.
The act amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. It would create an Undersecretary of the Garment Industry within the U.S. Department of Labor as well as a nationwide garment industry registry aimed at guaranteeing manufacturer and contractor compliance with the newly established labor standards.
“American workers are making their voices heard across industries as a renewed labor movement makes its voice heard,” Gillibrand said in the release. “For far too long, garment workers in the once-bustling American apparel manufacturing industry have been exploited and overlooked. The popularization of the fast fashion business model has perpetuated abuse of an already underpaid and overworked workforce, promoting profits over people, overconsumption, and rampant wage theft.”
Gillibrand added that she was reintroducing the FABRIC Act to protect workers’ rights, fix wage issues and invest in domestic garment manufacturing.
“Protecting the garment workforce has direct impacts on economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, and gender equality,” Gillibrand said. “It’s time to take bold action at the federal level to change the fabric of the American garment manufacturing industry so we can protect these vital workers and not only make American, but buy American.”
The FABRIC Act echoes the California Garment Worker Protection Act, which came into effect in January 2022 and ended the practice of paying garment workers per piece, making brands responsible for wage violations in California factories, regardless of whether they are located within the state.
“The FABRIC Act is so exciting because at its heart are protections for workers' hard-earned wages, protections we recently gained in California,” Marissa Nuncio, director of the Garment Worker Center in Los Angeles, Calif., said in a statement emailed to Fashion Dive. “To see these safeguards go nationwide — and have incentives to encourage manufacturing in the US — would be life-changing for so many workers and the industry as a whole.”
Meanwhile, in January 2024, the New York State Senate will debate the Fashion Sustainability and Accountability Act. This act would require brands that sell clothes in New York State to document and disclose their supply chains and comply with certain standards around wages, pollution and climate impacts.
The FABRIC Act and Fashion Act are “likely to encounter strong opposition,” Kajsa Ralston, Sustainability Manager at consulting firm Mazars said in an email to Fashion Dive. “Regardless of the outcome of next year's legislative session, the industry needs to understand that this issue is not going away; U.S. fashion companies that have yet to begin the work of mapping their supply chains, measuring their impacts, and setting emission reduction targets may learn that inaction often has a cost, as they eventually find themselves lagging behind their more proactive, environmentally-conscious competitors.”
