As much of the world practices social distancing to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the workforce is being split into nonessential workers, those who should stay home to flatten the curve, and essential workers, those on whom we rely for our basic needs. While it seems obvious that major clothing outlets fit into the nonessential category, many fast fashion brands (including H&M and Zara) were still open for the majority of March, as the pandemic spread across the globe. Retail workers were on the front lines of a global crisis in the middle of growing confirmed numbers of cases. Now, they’re facing mass layoffs.

While brands like Zara, which announced worldwide store closures on March 18, have said that they’re joining in the fight against the coronavirus, donating masks for health workers, Aja Barber, a writer and consultant focusing on fashion’s intersections with feminism, race, and colonization, says action should be taken to support the health and safety of their workers. “They [all major fast fashion brands] could just not make their employees work during a deadly pandemic,” Aja tells Teen Vogue, insisting that they could have closed in the best interest of their workers earlier in the course of the pandemic. “If you’re really interested in fighting COVID-19, that’s an obvious and very easy way.” (Teen Vogue has reached out to Zara and will update the story if they respond.)

Aja hopes that shedding a light on retail employees’ working conditions during the pandemic, through her Instagram, will force people to be more critical of the entire fast fashion system. “If a business is willing to risk your life and you don’t like it, why aren’t we all looking out for supply chain workers who deal with the life-risking situations every day?

H&M provided the following statement to Teen Vogue, explaining that they began closing stores in the U.S. prior to all of their stores closing on March 18: “In addition to H&M’s regular wellness policy, which includes the use of sick time, we have provided support to our colleagues with additional pay in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an extraordinary situation in which we are forced to make difficult decisions. We regret to say that we have found the need to furlough some members of our workforce in the U.S. due to the negative impacts the corona situation has had on our business.”

In addition to impacted retail workers, the pandemic has sent shockwaves through the most vulnerable workers in fashion’s supply chain. Those 40 million garment workers, many of whom are living in low-wage countries across Southeast Asia and Europe, are currently facing factory closures. Some are paying the price for major brands canceling orders, sometimes even when the work has already been done. Bloomberg reports that European companies have canceled roughly $1.5 billion worth of orders from about 1,089 garment factories in Bangladesh due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Since brands often pay their suppliers weeks or even months after delivery, this means that those suppliers pay up front for the materials. H&M was one of the first major retailers to agree to pay their suppliers for canceled orders where products have been manufactured; now others have joined their commitment, including PVH (with deferred payments), according to a recent report from the Penn State Center for Global Workers’ Rights. Many major brands, such as Primark, Walmart, and J.C. Penney, are yet to make that commitment, according to the report. Teen Vogue reached out to these brands for comment, with only Primark responding (at the time of publication). “Every store in every country in which we operate is now closed. We are losing sales of £650m a month as a result. We have therefore been left with no option,” a Primark spokesperson said. “This has been unprecedented action for unprecedented and frankly unimaginable times. We at Primark have worked alongside so many of our suppliers for many years and value our relationships enormously.”