Labor Groups Unite for the Fashion Workers Act

NEW YORK, NY (05/16/2024) (readMedia)-- With 11 days left of session in Albany, labor groups including SAG-AFTRA, WGAE, Conde Nast Union, Worked United, Freelancers Union, Healthy Nail Salon Coalition, Legal Aid, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) are throwing their weight behind the the Fashion Workers Act – a pro-labor bill that would regulate predatory management agencies in New York and equip models with workplace protections within the $2.5 trillion fashion industry.

"SAG-AFTRA strongly believes that all creative workers should be protected under the law. Unfortunately, workers in the fashion industry – many of whom are young women – often have little protection and are likewise vulnerable to all forms of abuse, ranging from economic exploitation to trafficking. The Fashion Workers Act would ensure that models in New York are protected from abuse." – SAG-AFTRA

"New York is home to a $10 billion fashion industry, and it is incumbent on our State to protect models and other fashion workers from exploitation. This legislation provides necessary protections for models and while the fashion industry may present the facade of glamour, it's never in vogue to take advantage of workers." - WGAE

"Without these workers, there would be no fashion. We understand this basic principle because without us, there would be no Condé Nast." - Conde Nast Union

"The Fashion Workers Act would address many issues that take place in the fashion industry by amending the New York State Labor Law to close the legal loophole by which management companies escape accountability and create basic protections for models and content creators including greater financial transparency and protections against harassment, discrimination, and unsafe working conditions. As a pro-labor state, New York must ensure that workers in the fashion industry – many of whom are young, immigrant women and girls – are treated with dignity and respect." - Freelancers Union

"As the Model Alliance advocates, despite the glamorous facade, the fashion industry is ripe with human rights abuses and has been built mostly on the backs of women and girls across the globe who experience debt, abuse, trafficking. These challenges are also some of the challenges that domestic workers experience," said Allison Julien, National Organizer Director for National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). "To see the changes we want to see in our workplace, we must stand in solidarity with one another.

"The Fashion Workers Act would address many issues that take place in the fashion industry by amending the New York State Labor Law to close the legal loophole by which management companies escape accountability and create basic protections for models including greater financial transparency and protections against harassment, discrimination, and unsafe working conditions. As a pro-labor state, New York must ensure that workers in the fashion industry – many of whom are young, immigrant women and girls – are treated with dignity and respect." - The Healthy Nail Salon Coalition

"The Fashion Workers Act would address many issues that take place in the fashion industry by amending the New York State Labor Law to close the legal loophole by which management companies escape accountability and create basic protections for models and content creators including greater financial transparency and protections against harassment, discrimination, and unsafe working conditions. As a pro-labor state, New York must ensure that workers in the fashion industry – many of whom are young, immigrant women and girls – are treated with dignity and respect." - Workers United

"Many regular business practices of the New York modeling industry perpetuate human trafficking - both labor and sex trafficking. By creating an environment where models are forced to sign unconscionable contracts that lack transparency and leaves them little control over their careers, they become vulnerable to exploitation. This exploitation leads to forced labor or sexual abuse or both." - Legal Aid

Read the full memos attached.

"Regardless of employment status, all workers deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Camoflauged by a veil of glamor and prestige, the lack of oversight within the fashion industry puts our mostly young, female, immigrant workforce of models behind others in regards to basic workplace protections. This labor fight, like any other, draws its strength from unity. The Model Alliance is grateful to have these powerful labor leaders behind us as we work to pass the Fashion Workers Act in New York this Spring, and we look forward to building worker power together across industries," said Sara Ziff, founder and executive director of the Model Alliance.

Fashion is big business in New York – Fashion Week alone generates close to $600 million in income each year for the State. And yet, models – the literal faces of the industry – are not afforded basic labor protections in New York. The Fashion Workers Act would close this loophole, create basic protections for models – often young women – and establish a zero-tolerance policy for abuse within the fashion industry.

Background on the Fashion Workers Act:

Modeling agencies are considered to be management companies under New York State General Business Law §171(8), known as the "incidental booking exception," allowing them to escape licensing and regulation. In almost every case, management companies are granted blanket "power of attorney" as part of their agreement to represent models, giving management companies power to accept payments on behalf of the model, deposit checks and deduct expenses, as well as book jobs, negotiate the model's rate of pay, and give third parties permission to use the model's image, while having no obligation to act in their talents' best interests.

This leaves models unprotected outside the terms of their individual contracts – which tend to be exploitative and one-sided in favor of the management company – and creates a lack of transparency and accountability when it comes to basic issues like health and safety and having insight into one's own finances. For example, models often don't know whether and how much they'll be paid for jobs booked through management companies, which deduct various unexplained fees from their earnings, in addition to a 20 percent commission from the model and a 20 percent service fee from the client. Models are held to multi-year, auto-renewing contracts without any guarantee of actually being booked paid work, which ensnares them in cycles of debt and makes models highly vulnerable to other forms of abuse, including sexual abuse and human trafficking. When models experience abuse, they do not have a safe channel to file work-related grievances without a risk of retaliation.

The Fashion Workers Act would address these issues by closing the legal loophole by which management companies escape accountability and create basic protections for the models who are the faces of New York's fashion industry.

The Fashion Workers Act would require management companies to:

• Conduct due diligence to ensure castings and jobs don't pose unreasonable risk of danger to the model, allow a model to be accompanied by a chaperone, and establish a zero tolerance policy for abuse
• Allow models to file a complaint with the labor commissioner, and decline to participate in a casting or booking due to good faith concerns, without retaliation
• Establish a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of their talent
• Provide models with copies of contracts and agreements at least 24 hours in advance of a job, and make handing over power of attorney optional and revocable at any time
• Charge only a 20% commission on earnings with no added fees (i.e. website fees, interest on the model's earnings, inflated rent for model apartments) and notify formerly represented models if they collect royalties on their behalf
• Register and deposit a surety bond of $50,000 with the NYS Department of State
• Obtain clear, written consent for the use of a model's digital replica

And discontinue bad practices such as:

• Presenting power of attorney as a necessary condition for entering into a contract with the management company
• Collecting signing fees or deposits from models
• Charging models interest on payment of their earnings
• Charging more than the daily fair market rate for accommodation
• Deducting any other fee or expense than the agreed upon commission
• Renewing the contract without the model's affirmative consent
• Imposing a commission fee greater than twenty percent of the model's compensation
• Taking retaliatory action against a model for filing a complaint
• Engaging in discrimination or harassment of any kind against a model on the basis of race, ethnicity, and other legally permissible categories under Section 296(a) of the Executive Law.

About the Model Alliance

Founded in 2012, the Model Alliance has been at the forefront of advancing labor rights in the fashion industry for the last decade. Through strategic research, policy initiatives, and campaigns, the Model Alliance aims to promote fair treatment, equal opportunity, and more sustainable practices in the fashion industry, from the runway to the factory floor. The Model Alliance has championed multiple pieces of legislation, including the Child Model Act and the Adult Survivors Act in New York and the Talent Protections Act in California. The organization also runs the world's only industry-specific support line, MA Support. In 2021, the organization received the first Positive Social Influence Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America at the CFDA Awards.