THE 19 U.S.-based retailers have agreed to pay a total of $8.75 million to settle the claims against them in three related lawsuits pending in federal court, a San Francisco-based lawyer disclosed to Variety yesterday.
Attorney Michael Rubin said under the settlements, the settling retailers agreed that their future contracts with Saipan garment factories will require the manufacturers to comply with a comprehensive new code of conduct and a truly independent state of the art monitoring program.
“Ten percent of the money goes to a fund to further the goals of the California state court action. Some of the moneys goes to attorneys’ fees,” said Rubin, who, along with a San Diego-based law firm of Milberg Weiss, represents the plaintiffs in the lawsuits.
Rubin said most of the settlement money is to be divided between the monitoring firm and the affected garment workers.
The workers will share the same amount, he added.
Ten current and former garment workers sued The Gap and other retailers for alleged violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, certain international laws and other related federal and CNMI laws.
In another lawsuit, two garment workers sued at least five retailers. In the third case, a garment worker sued one retailer. The two complaints alleged, among other things, that U.S.-based retailers “were aware of, and controlled, the illegal and inhumane working and living conditions imposed on plaintiffs and class members in garment factories in the CNMI by the contractors who manufacture garments for the defendant retailers.”
The court consolidated the three cases.
U.S. District Court Judge Alex R. Munson approved on Friday the preliminary proposed settlements that resolved the claims against 19 retailers.
The settlement, Rubin said, leaves only The Gap, Levis, J.C. Penney, Abercrombie & Fitch, The Limited, Talbots and Target and 28 factories that have not yet settled.
“Our hope is that now that Judge Munson has approved this settlement preliminary as fair and reasonable, that the remaining defendants will agree to accept this very same code of conduct in monitoring program we will be bound by in the future and will also agree to pay their share in order to fully compensate the workers for the injuries that we alleged,” he said.
Rubin said “it’s not a final settlement, but just the first step to say that this looks good, fair, reasonable and proper.”
He said they expect the court to issue a final approval of settlement on Oct. 31.
“Now notices have to be sent to 30,000 to 40,000 affected workers to hear their comments on the settlement. If they also agree, or after hearing from plaintiffs, the judge will decide whether to finally approve the settlement,” he said.
The notices will be published in the CNMI, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.
