Casual fashion brand Gap has built its name on affordable closet staples and on “Empowering Women.” But a recent case in a Haitian factory that sews for Gap Inc.’s Old Navy brand is calling Gap’s commitment to women, human rights, and basic legal compliance into question. The solution is simple: Gap should require its supplier to offer to rehire improperly fired workers and pay them what they’re owed.

Cheated and Fired: Gap Inc.’s Supplier Violates the Law

In July 2024, the Wilbes factory in Port-au-Prince Haiti laid off approximately 900 workers, according to an investigation published by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC). Among these workers were thirteen women, four pregnant women and nine union leaders–two groups who are protected and should not have been among the first to lose their jobs. 

Haiti’s labor protections are quite strong, prohibiting employers from dismissing workers who are pregnant without prior approval from the country’s Ministry of Labor. The Wilbes does not deny that they failed to obtain prior approval before firing the four pregnant workers. These unlawful firings caused the four pregnant workers to lose the maternity benefits they were otherwise entitled to, the equivalent of 12 weeks of paid leave when their babies were born. 

According to a report by the WRC, the firings occurred because Gap’s supplier shut down two of its four buildings. Some of the workers who had worked in the closing buildings were given the option to continue working for the company in the portion of the factory that remained open. But not all workers. 

Gap Inc.’s Supplier Fires Pregnant Workers, Women Leaders

The other workers who were illegally fired were nine female union leaders, workers who are also supposed to be given priority for keeping their jobs in the event of layoffs. This provision exists because too often, companies use any excuse, including layoffs, to get rid of union leaders, eroding worker rights and worker power. 

This facility closure and firings of union leaders and pregnant workers came just one year after workers at the factory had organized a union, affiliated with the Haitian federation Sendika Ouvriye Tektil ak Abiman-Batay Ouvriye (SOTA-BO) or Union of Textile and Apparel Workers/Workers’ Struggle. The workers had initially organized the union to address health and safety issues, including things so basic as access to clean drinking water, and harassment by supervisors. 

According to interviews conducted by the WRC with fired pregnant workers and union leaders, they were never told that they had an option to transfer to the buildings that remained open. Instead, workers were told that they were being fired and that they needed to sign a letter to receive their legally-owed severance payments. Workers testified that they could not understand the text of the letter and it was not read to them.

The factory, however, used these documents to claim that workers had willingly given up their jobs and didn’t want to transfer to another facility. 

Haiti’s legal protections for pregnant workers and union leaders are the sort of protections that should be written into more laws. They are a commonsense measure to defend the rights of workers who are most often discriminated against. 

Upholding these vital worker protections should be a priority for Gap. Gap Inc.’s Code of Vendor Conduct is extremely clear that suppliers must, as a baseline, comply with all local laws. The Wilbes violated both Haitian law and Gap Inc.’s Code of Vendor Conduct.¹

“…If I had received my maternity benefits, I could have started a small business in front of my house to sell things and help support my family. The financial situation of my family is not the same now since I haven’t been working. For example, school just reopened, and my son had to start late because we didn’t have money to send him during the first week.
Another issue is the financial toll of the new baby. I haven’t been able to breastfeed him, and we have to buy formula.
If I had received the [maternity benefits legally owed] from The Willbes, it would have been very helpful. At least I could have started a small business.” -Anonymous Worker

Time for Gap to Take a Stand for Real Empowerment

Yet so far, Gap has not stood by its own code of conduct, nor its public commitments to workers. Requiring that suppliers comply with local law is the bare minimum included in basically every corporate code of conduct. But Gap and its Old Navy and Athleta brands have long spoken of doing more than the minimum, even if they haven’t always lived up to those commitments in the past. Gap has built its reputation on “Empowering Women,” as the first pillar of its Corporate Social Responsibility platform states. 

Gap’s website talks about the investments it has made over the years “to help ensure [women] are empowered to reach their full potential.” Holding leadership positions in their union is an example of just the sort of empowerment that one would think Gap would want to support. Yet when Gap was contacted by the WRC and advocates to back the fired workers and urge their supplier to follow the law, Gap instead sided with factory management. When Partners for Dignity and Rights contacted Gap in October 2025 about the case, the company chose not to respond. 

Real empowerment means ensuring that women who rise to positions of leadership in their unions are not penalized. Real empowerment means that people can bear children without losing their jobs and livelihoods. It’s high time that Gap stood for the principles of empowerment they claim and demand that its supplier the Wilbes rehire and compensate these thirteen workers.

1. 
   Gap Inc.’s Code of Vendor Conduct requires that Suppliers comply with local labor law. As the WRC breaks down, “Article 330 of the Haitian Labor Code prohibits employers from dismissing employees who are pregnant without obtaining prior approval from the country’s Ministry of Labor. It is undisputed that The Willbes did not obtain such prior approval before terminating the four pregnant workers.
   Haiti’s Constitution and Labor Code, protect workers’ rights to join, participate in, and be represented by labor unions. To protect this right, the Haitian Ministry of Labor, in accordance wits ith ILO Recommendation 143 (Workers’ Representatives), has directed employers conducting staff reductions to give priority to worker representatives for continued employment.”
   Gap’s Code also mandates that suppliers ensure workers’ freedom of association rights are protected and that there are no discriminatory employment practices, including against pregnant workers.  ↩︎