Apparel brands’ response to US tariffs introduced in 2025 exposed garment workers to serious human and labour rights risks, according to new research from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.
The report found that brands reacted to tariff-related cost pressures by rapidly changing sourcing locations, adjusting order volumes and pushing suppliers for lower prices, with the financial strain passed down the supply chain.
As a result, workers across major garment-producing countries were hit by factory closures, layoffs, reduced hours, wage cuts and delayed payments.
The research said women and migrant workers were particularly vulnerable, due to insecure employment and limited social protections, with some facing food insecurity, loss of access to medicine and heightened risks of trafficking and survival sex.
The centre said suppliers in countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lesotho, Sri Lanka and India reported orders being delayed, paused or cancelled as buyers reassessed sourcing strategies in response to shifting tariff rates.
Differences in tariff levels between countries also triggered a rapid reallocation of sourcing, as US buyers moved orders away from higher-tariff markets. At the same time, suppliers were asked to absorb or share additional tariff-related costs, intensifying pressure on already thin margins.
The report argued that workers bore the brunt of those commercial decisions. In cases where orders did materialise, compressed timelines often led to excessive overtime, while falling demand and squeezed supplier margins translated into fewer shifts and lower take-home pay.
Unions also reported that some employers used the tariff disruption to weaken labour protections, including by denying workers rights such as unionisation, meal breaks and overtime pay, and pressuring staff to sign voluntary redundancy letters.
Beyond the factory floor, the report highlighted wider social consequences, including increased economic insecurity and reduced access to essential healthcare following closures and job losses.
The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre said the findings reflect a “repeated, foreseeable and avoidable pattern” seen in previous supply chain shocks, including during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In April 2025 and January 2026, the organisation contacted the top 25 fashion companies importing into the US to ask how tariff-related sourcing changes were being managed. It said none responded to either request, raising concerns over transparency and the effectiveness of human rights due diligence.
Interim project manager for labour rights Anithra Varia said: “The 2025 US tariffs didn’t just reshape trade, they reshaped livelihoods as well.
“When a crisis hits global supply chains, more often than not the costs are pushed down onto suppliers, with disastrous consequences for workers. As brands made calculated commercial decisions, garment workers were left facing layoffs, rising precarity, the erosion of labour rights, and in many cases hunger and marginalisation.”
She added that brands had the power to determine where financial shocks landed in the supply chain, and urged them to adopt more responsible purchasing practices, including honouring existing orders, maintaining agreed prices and payment terms, and working with suppliers and worker representatives to protect wages, benefits and severance.
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