[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4768 Introduced in House (IH)]







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. Velazquez (for herself, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Mr. 
 George Miller of California, Mr. Kildee, Mr. Engel, Ms. McKinney, 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 Representatives 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 perpetuating labor conditions that undermine minimum living 
        standards and by providing an unfair means of competition to 
        the detriment of employers who comply with the law.
            (2) The existence of domestic and foreign working 
        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 continuing and growing problem in the garment 
        industry.
            (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 repugnant, 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 purchase garments made in 
        sweatshops and sold into interstate and international commerce.
            (4) The Congress concurs in the findings of the Comptroller 
        General that most sweatshop employers violate the recordkeeping 
        requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 
        201 et seq.).
            (5) The failure of these employers to maintain adequate 
        records, as well as the lack of access to such records by 
        consumers, employees, consumer and employee representatives, 
        and the public at large has adversely affected and continues to 
        adversely affect the ability of employees and the Department of 
        Labor to collect wages due to workers and to otherwise ensure 
        compliance with the Act's wage and hour, child labor, and 
        industrial homework provisions.
            (6) These failures of recordkeeping and lack of access to 
        records--combined with the inadequacy in the scope of 
        information that manufacturers have been required to record and 
        disclose--also obstruct consumers from freely and knowingly 
        choosing whether to buy garments that are made under sweatshop 
        conditions.
            (7) It is necessary to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act 
        of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) to ensure free consumer choice 
        and to promote fair competition and working conditions that are 
        not detrimental to the maintenance of health, efficiency, and 
        general well-being of workers in the garment industry.

SEC. 3. RECORDKEEPING AND DISCLOSURE IN THE GARMENT INDUSTRY.

    The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is 
amended by inserting after section 11 the following new section:

         ``recordkeeping and disclosure in the garment industry

    ``Sec. 11A. (a) An apparel manufacturer that engages a contractor 
to manufacture apparel shall maintain, for not less than 3 years, the 
following:
            ``(1) The same records and information with respect to the 
        employees and homeworkers of each contractor engaged by the 
        manufacturer that the manufacturer is required to make, keep, 
        and preserve with respect to an employer's employees and 
        homeworkers under section 11(a).
            ``(2) Records of the following, with respect to each 
        contractor engaged by the manufacturer:
                    ``(A) The address of the headquarters, principal 
                places of business, and place of incorporation (or 
                other legal registration) of the contractor.
                    ``(B) A full description of each production order 
                placed by the manufacturer with the contractor, 
                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, employees, consumer and employee 
                representatives, 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 manufacturing 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 manufacturing or 
                        transformation;
                            ``(iv) the age of each such employee; and
                            ``(v) for each such employee, the regular 
                        time and overtime hours worked (as determined 
                        under section 13), the wages and benefits paid, 
                        and the method of calculating any piece rates 
                        or incentive rates paid.
                    ``(C) The names and addresses of all persons who 
                are financially invested or interested, whether as 
                partners, associates, profit sharers, shareholders, or 
                through other forms of financial investment, in each 
                contractor engaged by the manufacturer, together with 
                the proportion or amount of their respective 
                investments or interests, 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 compliance or noncompliance by the 
                contractor with the applicable labor laws.
    ``(b) Prior to, or concurrent with, an apparel manufacturer's 
placement of a production order with a contractor 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 
subsection (a).
    ``(c) An apparel manufacturer shall diligently enforce any contract 
specified in section 11A(b), including initiating 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 
electronic 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 representing 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 manufacturer or contractor 
for violation of the manufacturer's obligations 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 awarded to, and apportioned among, the employees 
of the contractor as to which the manufacturer has failed to maintain 
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 requirements of subsections (b) and (c), may be enforced in 
the same manner as records and information the manufacturer is required 
to make, keep, and preserve with respect 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) designed or intended to be worn 
        by men, women, children, 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 foreign 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 subcontractor of such person) 
                for such manufacturer; and
                    ``(B) any agent, distributor, or person described 
                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, including 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 employment 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 jurisdiction over 
                the manufacturer or contractor; or
                    ``(C) a foreign court or tribunal having 
                jurisdiction over the manufacturer or contractor.''.

SEC. 4. CIVIL PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF RECORDKEEPING.

    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 
subject 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.''.
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