Victoria's (Dirty) Secret: Pay Your Garment Workers!

Have you ever paid for a Victoria’s Secret bra? Well Victoria’s Secret hasn’t paid for theirs!

For over 15 years, workers at The Brilliant Alliance Thai Global (Now Clover Ltd) sewed lingerie for Victoria's Secret. On 11th March 2021, they arrived for their regular shift at work, only to find the factory doors closed. 1,338 unionised, mostly female workers had been fired, without notice or severance pay. 

In the same month, the Thai government ruled that the factory must pay 242.22 million baht in compensation to the workers within 30 days, but they still haven't received a penny. With interest accrued, Victoria's Secret legally owes a staggering $8.5 million. It’s time for Victoria’s Secret to #PayYourWorkers.

Over a year since losing their jobs, the workers continue to fight for the compensation they are owed, supported by the wider #PayYourWorkers campaign. This campaign calls on brands to remedy individual cases of wage theft and to sign a binding agreement and fund which ensures workers in their supply chains are never left without pay again.

Fashion justice non-profit, Remake, have spearheaded the #VictoriasDirtySecret campaign and are calling on the brand to: 

• Ensure all Brilliant Alliance (Clover Ltd) factory workers are paid their legally owed severance.⠀
• Commit to negotiating with unions to create an enforceable severance guarantee fund so that the women who bring your products to life never again face severance pay theft.

Victoria's Secret have agreed to meet with Remake, but they haven't yet agreed to their resolutions. It’s time to amp up the pressure and take action. 

How can you get involved?

Flood Victoria’s Secrets socials

The more we expose #VictoriasDirtySecret online, the more they’ll be forced to respond and pay up. Spread the message on social media by:

• Tagging @victoriassecret in the comment sections of campaign posts (like this one) and telling them to #PayYourWorkers
• Commenting #PayYourWorkers and #VictoriasDirtySecrets on @victoriassecret posts
• Reposting campaign posts by @remakeourworld and @cleanclothescampaign
• Posting about the campaign on your own socials. You can find shareable campaign graphics, Twitter and Instagram captions, and relevant hashtags in this social media toolkit. 

Email Victoria’s Secrets executives

Remake have created an email writing kit with a customisable template, executive email address and a suggested subject line demanding Victoria’s Secret to pay its Thai garment workers. You can also write an email to Torrid and Lane Bryant (two others brands supplied by Clover Ltd) using the #PayYourWorkers letter template here. 

Protest at your local Victoria’s Secret store

Find your local Victoria’s Secret store here and take action by:

• Holding a solidarity poster outside the shop entrance.
• Printing out spoof Victoria’s Secret gift cards which explain the campaign and contain a QR code which links to the email form. You could hand them out to people or hide them in Victoria’s Secret underwear and pyjamas.
• Protesting outside stores with presentation cheques which highlight how much garment workers at Brilliant Alliance are owed.
• You can find more store action ideas here.

To stay up-to-date with the campaign:

• Follow @remakeourworld and @cleanclothescampaign, and turn on their post notifications.
• Bookmark VictoriasDirtySecret.co and www.payyourworkers.org/.
• Read more about what happened here and here.

Join our Instagram Live 

On Friday 8th April at 7pm, we’ll be going live on our Instagram to talk about the campaign and take collective action. We’ll talk you through all the ways you can support the campaign, so set aside some time that evening to make some noise online!