[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4613 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4613

  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

                           December 16, 2005

 Ms. Velazquez (for herself, Mr. Owens, Mr. Brady of Pennsylvania, Mr. 
  Kildee, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, Ms. Schakowsky, and Ms. Kaptur) 
 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 2005''.

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 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 
        apparel manufacturer that the apparel manufacturer is required 
        to make, keep, and preserve with respect to an employer's 
        employees and homeworkers under section 11(c).
            ``(2) Records of the following, with respect to the apparel 
        manufacturer and each contractor engaged by the apparel 
        manufacturer:
                    ``(A) The address of the headquarters, principal 
                places of business, and place of incorporation (or 
                other legal registration) of the apparel manufacturer 
                and each contractor.
                    ``(B) A full description of each production run of 
                the apparel manufacturer and of each production order 
                placed by the apparel manufacturer with the contractor, 
                including descriptions of the items manufactured or 
                otherwise transformed by the apparel manufacturer or 
                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 run or 
                        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 apparel manufacturer 
                        fulfilling a production run or 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, identified by 
                        a unique number divulged only to that 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 the 
                apparel manufacturer and each contractor engaged by the 
                apparel 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.
            ``(3) Identification of--
                    ``(A) all applicable labor laws; and
                    ``(B) every charge, complaint, petition, or other 
                legal, administrative, or 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 non compliance by the 
                apparel manufacturer and each 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 apparel manufacturer shall enter into a contract with the 
contractor that requires the contractor to provide to the apparel 
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)(1) Beginning 1 year after the date of enactment of this 
section, 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 
electronic databases that are available via the Internet and readily 
searchable by content.
    ``(2) Not later than 1 year after enactment of this subsection, the 
Secretary shall promulgate regulations indicating the specific 
categories of data an apparel manufacturer and each of its contractors 
shall submit. The Secretary shall ensure that those categories are 
sufficient to ensure that the database required under paragraph (1) is 
readily searchable by name of apparel manufacturer and contractor, 
address of apparel manufacturer and contractor, date of each production 
run of the apparel manufacturer, date of each production order or 
purchase order between named apparel manufacturers and contractors, job 
categories of each apparel manufacturer and contractor for each 
production run, purchase order and production order, categories of 
violations and other information for each apparel manufacturer and 
contractor specified in subsection (a)(3)(B). The Secretary shall 
provide for the submission of such data through a standardized 
electronic means that is freely available to all apparel manufacturers 
and contractors.
    ``(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 such manufacturer's obligations under this section in 
an appropriate United States district court.
    ``(B) An apparel manufacturer or contractor found liable in 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 apparel 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 apparel manufacturer and the contract 
and enforcement requirements of subsections (b) and (c), may be 
enforced in the same manner as records and information the apparel 
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 apparel manufacturer or contractor; or
                    ``(C) a foreign court or tribunal having 
                jurisdiction over the apparel manufacturer or 
                contractor.''.

SEC. 4. CIVIL PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF RECORDKEEPING.

    Section 16 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 
216(e)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(f) Any person who fails to maintain or submit information, 
records, or 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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