BANGALORE - Garment workers making clothes for major global brands in the Indian state of Karnataka say their families are going hungry because factories are refusing to pay the legal minimum wage.
Karnataka is one of the hubs of India’s garment industry with thousands of factories producing clothing for brands and retailers including Puma, Nike, Zara, Tesco, C&A, Gap, Marks & Spencer and H&M.
The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) estimates the total amount of unpaid wages at about US$55 million, with more than 400,000 garment workers not being paid the minimum wage in Karnataka since April 2020.
