Women garment workers at two Indonesian factories have reported 236 instances of gender-based violence and harassment through a union-led grievance system that has resulted in 165 disciplinary sanctions, including eight terminations, according to a new progress report examining the first year of an enforceable labor agreement.
The findings, released Oct. 15, document the early results of the Central Java Agreement for Gender Justice, which covers 6,250 workers, approximately 90 percent of them women, at PT Batang Apparel Indonesia and PT Semarang Garment Indonesia. South Korean apparel manufacturer Ontide owns both factories, which produce merchandise for Fanatics and U.S. colleges and universities.
At PT Semarang Garment, a manager routinely groped women workers, while another supervisor shouted insults and demanded money and gifts. Workers at PT Batang Apparel Indonesia described similar treatment, including unwanted touching and physical intimidation. The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) documented the abuse during investigations in 2021 and 2022. After years of organizing by women workers, the factories’ unions and owner Ontide signed the Central Java Agreement in July 2024.
The agreement’s first-year results suggest that giving workers a formal role in identifying, investigating and addressing harassment can produce measurable disciplinary action. Whether those interventions have reduced the underlying prevalence of abuse remains less clear.
“Previously, victims often chose to remain silent because of social stigma and the lack of safe reporting channels,” said Finna Fitaloka, a garment worker and trainer at PT Batang Apparel Indonesia, during the report’s launch in Semarang. “The Central Java Agreement has changed that perspective. Workers now recognize that harassment and violence are not just part of the job—they are violations of the law and human rights.”
The agreement brings together Ontide, four factory unions, the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, Global Labor Justice and the WRC. Its enforcement mechanism is tied to Fanatics’ licensing contracts with WRC-affiliated universities, which require the company to hold suppliers accountable for their labor obligations.
At each factory, a committee comprising union and management representatives reviews harassment complaints and recommends disciplinary action when allegations are substantiated. Management must carry out those recommendations. Workers can also turn to one of 139 union-appointed shop-floor monitors for help reporting abuse.
During the reporting period, unions appointed and trained 139 worker shop-floor monitors: 72 at PT Semarang Garment and 67 at PT Batang Apparel Indonesia. Another 10 women workers joined the factories’ harassment elimination committees, with 47 taking positions on implementation teams.
More than 6,000 workers, supervisors and managers also completed training on gender-based violence and harassment, reaching the entire workforce at both facilities.
Workers have several ways to report harassment. They can speak with a union representative, contact a shop-floor monitor or bring a complaint directly to management. Reports can also be submitted through WhatsApp or the factory committees. Investigations are generally supposed to be completed within 45 days, with up to 60 days allowed for cases referred to an independent team.
Workers submitted 236 reports of gender-based violence and harassment, with most involving verbal abuse. Some incidents prompted reports from several employees, so the total does not reflect 236 separate cases. Management issued 165 sanctions, including eight terminations, 29 written warnings and 117 verbal warnings, alongside other corrective measures such as performance assessments and written apologies.
The report said every closed case resulted in at least one sanction. Most cases at PT Semarang Garment were resolved within the prescribed 45-day period, while some investigations at PT Batang Apparel Indonesia took as long as 90 days because of initial staffing shortages.
The organizations behind the agreement attribute the number of reports to workers’ growing trust in the system.
The 236 reports suggest workers are increasingly willing to come forward, but they don’t establish whether harassment has declined. The authors reviewed agreement records and interviewed 30 workers. Without comparable data from before the agreement, it’s difficult to measure how much conditions have changed.
Still, workers described changes in how they interact with supervisors and participated in factory governance.
“Now that the Committee exists, we have a place where we can share and speak up,” said Vina, a union member at PT Batang Apparel Indonesia, in the report. “If we have a problem, we don’t just complain behind the scenes anymore—we can say, ‘I’ll go to the Committee.’”
Workers who report harassment can also receive counseling and other psychosocial support. Ima, a survivor who received assistance through the program, later joined its psychosocial support team to help colleagues facing similar experiences.
“I stand before you tonight to share a journey from fear to courage,” said Ima at the launch. “The Central Java Agreement does more than provide access to advocacy; it demonstrates that an appropriate recovery process can transform a survivor into a leader.”
Lesotho introduced similar agreements in 2019 and Tamil Nadu, India, in 2022. Both established procedures for workers to report harassment and hold employers accountable under binding agreements.
After the investigations, Fanatics and Ontide disciplined or dismissed supervisors and managers implicated in harassment. They subsequently negotiated the Central Java Agreement, which uses Fanatics’ university licensing contracts to hold Ontide accountable for complying with its labor obligations.
Ontide management reported that worker turnover attributable to harassment and unresolved grievances had declined substantially; however, the report did not provide figures to quantify that change.
The agreement’s authors argue that its early results demonstrate the potential for worker-led enforcement mechanisms to improve accountability across global garment supply chains.
Whether the model can be extended to additional factories, particularly those without established unions or the leverage of university licensing contracts, remains an open question.
For the workers involved, the more immediate change is that complaints once handled informally, inconsistently or not at all are now subject to a defined investigation process, with consequences that can extend to the factory’s management ranks.