When fashion refused to pay their factories for clothes they ordered during the pandemic, some of those factory owners made headlines for joining together to seek justice. In one case, 26 factory groups in Bangladesh fought a legal battle with US department store Sears over unpaid labour. Sears, which filed for bankruptcy in 2018, had owed $40 million according to a lawsuit filed by the factories. The case ended in a settlement, with Sears paying out $6.3 million in total across the 26 groups, according to news reports, with a smaller sum to be paid out in the coming months.
Further details of the settlement remain private and both Sears and the factory groups declined to comment.
