Outsourcing Beneficiaries: Contract and Tort Strategies for Improving Conditions in the Global Garment Industry

Abstract

Sweatshop conditions have existed since factories emerged as the engine of mass production. Manufacturing led to a system of labor that sweats workers for profit - forcing people to work in unsafe and unhealthy conditions for long hours and poverty wages. At the top of the supply chain in the global garment industry are major multinational brands that outsource manufacturing to contract factories worldwide. Although brands create the environment in which sweatshops thrive by paying factories low prices, they use the fact that the factories are independent contractors as a mechanism for escaping liability for illegal and inhumane working conditions. For decades, workers and worker advocacy organizations have brought claims in U.S. courts in an effort to hold brands accountable for conditions in factories globally. This article provides an overview of some of those cases, as well as a recommendation for the use of contract and tort doctrines as tools to uphold workers' rights throughout the supply chain. With respect to contract doctrine, advocates should look to the promises brands make when they enter into licensing and purchasing agreements with colleges, universities and cities. Additionally, advocates should explore the exceptions to the rule that employers are not liable for the conduct of independent contractors, and specifically render the upholding of workers rights in the global garment industry a non-delegable duty in line with established tort doctrine. The article also looks at the effectiveness of free trade agreements at holding brands legally accountable for worker rights violations. Ultimately the article concludes that only concerted effort on multiple fronts - organizing efforts, litigation efforts, and legislative efforts - will achieve the goal of holding multinational brands primarily responsible for working conditions throughout the supply chain.

Keywords: third party beneficiary, non-delegable duty, sweatshop, supply chain