RESPECTING HUMAN RIGHTS

Many people are involved in producing our clothing. They work in factories and workshops in various countries, where there are often risks related to human rights. Our values and standards regarding human rights are included in our Supplier Declaration for Social and Environmental Sustainability.

We focus on addressing the most severe and likely risks. Based on our risk analysis, we have decided to concentrate our efforts on the following four themes:

• Occupational health & safety
• Freedom of association
• Protecting children and young employees
• Decent wages

We monitor these and other risks in our sewing factories through independent audits and visits from our local sourcing teams (see our transparency page), and we request improvement plans from suppliers when needed. We also work to prevent and address these risks by collaborating with other brands, suppliers, and expert organisations through projects and sector initiatives.

Health and Safety at Work

America Today signed the Bangladesh Accord in 2013, the Transition Accord in 2018, and the International Accord in 2021. The International Accord is a legally binding agreement between clothing brands, retailers, and trade unions to make ready-made garment (RMG) and textile factories safe. In our partner factories in Bangladesh, safety committees are trained, and all employees are informed about safe working conditions. The factories are also regularly subjected to independent inspections on fire, building, and electrical safety. Over the years, they have worked hard and made many improvements.

The 2021 International Accord commits the parties to continue the collective workplace safety programme in Bangladesh and to expand safety programmes to other countries based on the principles and standards of the previous Accords from 2013 and 2018.

In 2023, the Accord was extended to Pakistan. We currently work with one production site in Pakistan and have therefore also decided to join this Accord. The agreement is based on several key principles, including: respect for freedom of association, independent oversight and enforcement, high transparency, provisions to ensure remediation is financially feasible, training of safety committees, worker awareness programmes, and a credible independent complaints mechanism.

Freedom of Association

We participated in the AMPLIFY project to promote worker representation and social dialogue between suppliers and their workers. This project was set up by Mondiaal FNV and CNV Internationaal. Through it, we learned more about the topic from experts and other brands and held conversations with some of our suppliers and worker representatives about the conditions in their factories. In 2023, Amfori launched the Speak for Change grievance mechanism in Turkey and India. This mechanism complements internal grievance systems in factories, ensuring that all complaints are heard and addressed. We monitor whether factories are using an independent complaints mechanism like Speak for Change.

Protecting children and young employees

From 2017 to 2020, we participated in the Combatting Child Labor in the Garment Supply Chain project, together with three of our partner factories in Bangladesh and with support from UNICEF and local partners. The factories worked hard to improve their workplaces and organisational structures to prevent child labour and support workers with children.