I
107TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4768
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide access to
information about sweatshop conditions in the garment industry, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 16, 2002
Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ (for herself, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. BROWN of Ohio, Mr.
GEORGE MILLER of California, Mr. KILDEE, Mr. ENGEL, Ms. MCKIN-
NEY, Ms. SOLIS, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr. BONIOR, Mr. LYNCH,
and Ms. LEE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Education and the Workforce
A BILL
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide
access to information about sweatshop conditions in the
garment industry, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Garment Consumer’s
Right-to-Know Act of 2002’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The production of garments in sweatshops
that violate labor rights and standards burdens
interstate and international commerce and the free
flow of goods in commerce by spreading and perpet-
uating labor conditions that undermine minimum liv-
ing standards and by providing an unfair means of
competition to the detriment of employers who com-
ply with the law.
(2) The existence of domestic and foreign work-
ing conditions detrimental to fair competition and
the maintenance of minimum standards of living
necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-
being of domestic and foreign workers are a con-
tinuing and growing problem in the garment indus-
try.
(3) Many consumers of garments wish to know
whether the garments they purchase in interstate
and international commerce are made under working
conditions that the consumer deems morally repug-
nant, indecent, violative of workers’ human dignity
and fundamental rights, or otherwise unacceptable.
The absence of reliable and available information
about such sweatshop conditions impairs consumers’
capacity to freely and knowingly choose whether to
‘‘(A) The address of the headquarters,
principal places of business, and place of incor-
poration (or other legal registration) of the con-
tractor.
‘‘(B) A full description of each production
order placed by the manufacturer with the con-
tractor, including descriptions of the items
manufactured or otherwise transformed by the
contractor, and of the attendant processes of
manufacturing and transformation, that are
sufficiently detailed to enable consumers, em-
ployees, consumer and employee representa-
tives, and the public to readily identify—
‘‘(i) the type, brand, style, or other
identifying features of the particular final
retail product to which a production order
applies;
‘‘(ii) for each process of manufac-
turing or transformation, the quantity of
items manufactured or transformed by
that process, the date of work performed,
and the location of the facility where work
was or is performed by employees of the
contractor fulfilling the production order;
‘‘(iii) the class or type of employees
that performed each process of manufac-
turing or transformation;
‘‘(iv) the age of each such employee;
and
‘‘(v) for each such employee, the reg-
ular time and overtime hours worked (as
determined under section 13), the wages
and benefits paid, and the method of calcu-
lating any piece rates or incentive rates
paid.
‘‘(C) The names and addresses of all per-
sons who are financially invested or interested,
whether as partners, associates, profit sharers,
shareholders, or through other forms of finan-
cial investment, in each contractor engaged by
the manufacturer, together with the proportion
or amount of their respective investments or in-
terests, except that in the case of a publicly
traded corporation a listing of principal officers
shall suffice.
‘‘(D) All applicable labor laws.
‘‘(E) Every charge, complaint, petition, or
other legal, administrative, or arbitral claim
submitted, filed, served, or in any other manner
brought by any party, and every action taken
by any public authority or private arbitrator
during the previous 5 years, pertaining to com-
pliance or noncompliance by the contractor with
the applicable labor laws.
‘‘(b) Prior to, or concurrent with, an apparel manu-
facturer’s placement of a production order with a con-
tractor to manufacture apparel, the manufacturer shall
enter into a contract with the contractor that requires the
contractor to provide to the manufacturer, in a timely
manner, the records and information required under sub-
section (a).
‘‘(c) An apparel manufacturer shall diligently enforce
any contract specified in section 11A(b), including initi-
ating legal action against the contractor in an appropriate
court.
‘‘(d) An apparel manufacturer shall submit copies of
the records and contracts required under subsection (a)
and (b) to the Secretary, who shall make the information
contained in those records and contracts fully and freely
available to the public, through printed and online elec-
tronic databases that are readily searchable by name of
manufacturer or contractor, address of manufacturer or
contractor, date of production order, and description of
production order (as provided in subsection (a)(2)(B)).
‘‘(e)(1)(A) Any employee of an apparel manufacturer
(or of a contractor engaged by such manufacturer), any
organization representing the interests of consumers in
the United States, and any labor organization rep-
resenting employees in the garment industry in the United
States or in the country in which the respective contractor
does business may bring an action against such manufac-
turer or contractor for violation of the manufacturer’s ob-
ligations under this section in an appropriate United
States district court.
‘‘(B) A manufacturer or contractor found liable an
action under this paragraph shall be subject to an award
of compensatory, consequential, and punitive damages, as
well as equitable relief. Any such damages shall be award-
ed to, and apportioned among, the employees of the con-
tractor as to which the manufacturer has failed to main-
tain information required under subsection (a) or has
failed to enter into or enforce contracts as required under
subsection (b).
‘‘(C) Plaintiffs in such actions shall be entitled to a
trial by jury and to attorney fees and costs in the same
manner as provided in section 16(b).
‘‘(2) The compliance of an apparel manufacturer with
this section, with respect to the information and records
employees and homeworkers of each contractor engaged
by the manufacturer and the contract and enforcement re-
quirements of subsections (b) and (c), may be enforced
in the same manner as records and information the manu-
facturer is required to make, keep, and preserve with re-
spect to an employer’s employees and homeworkers under
section 11(a).
‘‘(f) For purposes of this section:
‘‘(1)(A) The term ‘apparel’ means a garment
(or a section or component of such garment) de-
signed or intended to be worn by men, women, chil-
dren, or infants and to be sold or offered for sale.
‘‘(B) Such term includes clothing, knit goods,
hats, gloves, handbags, hosiery, ties, scarves, and
belts.
‘‘(C) 
Such 
term 
does 
not 
include
premanufactured items, such as buttons, zippers,
snaps, or studs.
‘‘(2) The term ‘manufacture’, with respect to
apparel, means to design, cut, sew, dye, wash, finish,
assemble, press, or otherwise produce.
‘‘(3)(A) The term ‘apparel manufacturer’
means any person, in or affecting interstate or for-
eign commerce, that—
‘‘(i) manufactures apparel or engages in
the business of selling apparel; or
‘‘(ii) engages a contractor to manufacture
apparel.
‘‘(B) Such term does not include a contractor.
‘‘(4) The term ‘contractor’ means—
‘‘(A) any person who contracts, directly or
indirectly, with an apparel manufacturer to
manufacture apparel (including any subcon-
tractor of such person) for such manufacturer;
and
‘‘(B) any agent, distributor, or person de-
scribed in subparagraph (A) through which
homework is distributed or collected by such an
agent, distributor, or contractor engaged by an
apparel manufacturer.
‘‘(5) The term ‘applicable labor laws’ means the
Federal, State, or international laws or regulations
to which an apparel manufacturer or contractor is
subject in the area of labor and employment, includ-
ing wages and hours, child labor, safety and health,
discrimination, freedom of association and collective
bargaining, work-related benefits and leaves, and
any other workplace condition or aspect of the em-
ployment relationship.
‘‘(6) The term ‘appropriate court’ means, with
respect to an apparel manufacturer or contractor—
‘‘(A) an appropriate United States district
court;
‘‘(B) a court of any State having jurisdic-
tion over the manufacturer or contractor; or
‘‘(C) a foreign court or tribunal having ju-
risdiction over the manufacturer or con-
tractor.’’.
SEC. 4. CIVIL PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF RECORD-
KEEPING.
Section 16(e) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of
1938 (29 U.S.C. 216(e)) is amended by adding after the
first sentence the following: ‘‘Any person who fails to
maintain or submit information, records, and contracts as
required under section 11(c) and section 11A shall be sub-
ject to a civil penalty of $5,000 for each employee to whom
such records pertain, except that a person who willfully
commits such a failure shall be liable for such civil penalty
for each pay period in which the failure occurs. In addition
to any other penalties provided by law, any person who
submits fraudulent information, records, or contracts
under section 11A shall be subject to a civil penalty of
$10,000 for the first such fraudulent act and $15,000 for
each such subsequent fraudulent act.’’.
Æ