"Fashion brands urged to protect Bangladesh garment workers' rights", 5 April 2024

The Clean Clothes Campaign explained that it communicated with 45 major fashion and sportswear brands, including H&M, Zara, Next, The North Face (VF Corp.), and Gap urging them to encourage their Bangladesh suppliers to drop the alleged criminal charges that were filed against workers and labour leaders during last year's minimum wage protests.

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The NGO added that the vast majority of brands allegedly "shirked the responsibility" by either falsely claiming that their suppliers were not involved, defending their suppliers’ filing of criminal cases, and/or denying that the charges were being used as a tool of "systematic retaliation" against workers who demonstrated for higher wages, or did not respond at all.

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Many others, according to the organisation, stated that their "sole response" was to involve the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) or the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) to issue a joint statement on their behalf.

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However, the Clean Clothes Campaign argued both the AAFA's letter and ETI's statement omitted that their concerns were in response to a push from rights groups directed at their member brands and claimed that most criminal cases (allegedly 26) were filed by factory owners producing for AAFA and ETI member brands and not the police, which it claimed has "filed at least six".