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Victoria's Secret agreed to finance the $8.3 million to settle a case related to the layoff of Thai workers last year. They worked at a factory that makes the brand's lingerie products being supplied worldwide.
According to Reuters, around 1,200 workers were sacked, and they were sent off without any severance pay and wages. It was said that Brilliant Alliance Thai Global Co Ltd. owed the workers, but it went bankrupt, and the factory in Samut Prakan province in Thailand was subsequently closed down in March 2021.
With the decision, labor activists said that this is the biggest settlement of its kind in the global garment sector. When the workers were laid off, labor activists described the action as "one of the hundreds of cases of wage theft" that took place in the garment business at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The agreed settlement will be funded by Victoria's Secret through a loan arrangement with Brilliant Alliance Thai Global's owner. Scott Nova, the executive director of an international labor advocacy group called the Worker Rights Consortium, said that the arrangement could become a model for global brands to better protect the rights of employees in their supply chains.
"Global brands need to realize that they are not passive investors, but trendsetters in setting labor standards," David Welsh, director of Solidarity Center in Thailand, said.
The Brilliance Alliance and its Hong Kong-based parent company, the Clover Group, failed and refused to pay the sacked Thai workers, and last week, Victoria's Secret & Co. said that it would extend a loan to the Clover so that the settlement with the workers could be financed. Then again, it was not clarified how much Victoria's Secret is covering in the settlement.
Business Today India further reported that based on a document from the Thai labor ministry, the total payment for the settlement with the workers already includes other related costs, and the total has reached $8.36 million or 285.2 million baht.
Meanwhile, a board member and executive of Clover, Emily Lau, said that the payment would be made using the personal resources of the owners - Angie and Emily Lau. She did not mention Victoria's Secret loan in the statement last week.
