Indian supplier to UK fashion brands agrees to pay £3m in unpaid wages
India’s largest garment company has paid out an estimated £3m in unpaid wages to tens of thousands of workers, after two years of refusing to pay its workers the legal minimum wage.
Last month Shahi Exports, which supplies dozens of international brands, agreed to pay nine months of back pay to about 80,000 workers, with further payments expected in the coming months that will increase the total paid back to workers to £7m.
Shahi and other garment companies across Karnataka, which collectively produce clothing for international brands including Puma, Nike, Zara, Tesco, C&A, Gap, Marks & Spencer and H&M, have been refusing to pay an annual cost-of-living increase to the minimum wage set by the Indian courts in April 2020.
More than 400,000 workers were left without their full legal wages for more than 20 months, in what international labour rights groups claimed was the biggest wage theft to hit the fashion industry.
In December, garment workers making clothes for the UK high street told the Guardian that they were going hungry and were unable to feed their children as the cost of living increased.
The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), which has been working with the Garment and Textile Workers Union and other labour rights groups across Karnataka, said that Shahi’s decision to pay back missing wages to its workers was a significant step forward.
WRC said that after international pressure from brands, who have been criticised for not ensuring workers in their supply chains were being paid properly, Shahi and other garment companies across the region had committed to pay around £19m of the £41m owed to workers.
“The dam has broken. The big players are paying and others will have no choice but to follow,” said Scott Nova, executive
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