In support of the Baptist World Aid Australia call to action, as well endorsing the Global Call to Action from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Brand Collective is joining other leading brands from around the world in support of footwear / garment workers income, health and employment. 

Brand Collective is joining with other companies from Australia, New Zealand and across the globe to participate in six key commitments.  These commitments together communicate our alignment and our action in the face of the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the global footwear & garment industry, including those workers in our own supply chain.

While the ultimate economic impact is still unknown, we are certain that COVID-19 and its aftermath pose the most serious and far-reaching business challenge we have ever had to face. We’ll face that challenge as we always have, making incredibly difficult decisions along the way guided by our values as a responsible company and evaluating the impact each decision has on our employees, our supply chain partners, the people making our products. In particular,

• We are guided by the Fair Labor Association’s Guidance on what companies should do to ensure responsible purchasing and to help protect workers’ health, safety, and livelihoods as the world responds to Covid-19.
• We are maintaining clear and constant communication with our factory partners and representative Asian sourcing office and have had one-on-one phone calls with each and every one of our factory partners to discuss their financial health and how they are weathering the impacts of Covid-19.
• We are paying in full for orders that are in process or completed.
• In the case of orders that are not yet in the production process, we are working in partnership with our factory partners with the aim of minimizing the impacts on them and their workers. 

We make these commitments because they represent and reflect Brand Collective’s values as well as our desire to do what we can to support our factory partners to survive the economic disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and to protect the wellbeing of their workers.

Brand Collective recognises more than ever that we cannot hope to adequately address the massive social and environmental challenges caused or intensified by the pandemic alone, and that collaboration with other businesses, community groups and Governments is a critical part of any meaningful and sustainable response.

In the coming months, we will share more information about the actions we are taking. Baptist World Aid will both guide our response and externally validate our actions to ensure transparency and integrity.

For specific information requests, contact the Brand Collective’s Group Sourcing Manager at bcsourcing@brandcollective.com.au       

Brand Collective © Brand Collective 2020

Click here to download this statement.

WHO ARE WE

Brand Collective is a leading guardian of some of the most recognised footwear and apparel brands in Australia including Clarks, Hush Puppies, Julius Marlow, Grosby, Volley, Mossimo, Elwood, Elka Collective and Superdry.

WHAT WE STAND FOR

At Brand Collective, we get that our customers want to buy ethically sourced apparel and footwear. That is why we have an Ethical Sourcing team, with offices in Australian and Asia, dedicated to ensuring that all products sold to our customers are ethically sourced and that our suppliers and manufacturers treat their employees fairly in accordance with local laws, both in terms of the wages they pay their employees and the working hours and conditions their employees enjoy.

We demand that our suppliers and manufacturers ensure that in relation to their product and workforce, basic labour and human rights are met, environmental impacts are managed and they behave ethically at all times.

WHAT WE EXPECT FROM OUR SUPPLIERS

We require our suppliers and manufacturers to participate in our Ethical Sourcing Program by meeting the following five key principles:

Mandatory participation – all production locations producing finished goods for us (including licensed products) must participate.

Communication – Suppliers and manufacturers must notify us of all locations used to produce products.

Compliance with local laws and Brand Collective policies – Suppliers and manufacturers are responsible for complying with local laws and our Code of Conduct set out further on

Transparency – We must have access to all areas of a supplier and manufacturer’s facility, confidential access to employees, and transparency of all necessary documents for audits and visits, and Corrective actions and cooperation.

Suppliers and manufacturers must cooperate with Brand Collective and any related parties we engage to resolve any identified non-compliance issues with our Ethical Sourcing Program.

Suppliers and manufacturers must provide evidence that issues are being addressed properly and promptly.

We publicly commit to only engage with suppliers who pay their workers a fair wage and we audit our suppliers to ensure their compliance with this important principle.

At the end of the day, we expect our suppliers and manufacturers to be transparent in their dealings with us and to take a proactive approach in addressing non-compliance issues.

We are proud to publish our current Footwear & Apparel Supplier Lists – download lists here.

We have developed a 10-point Code of Conduct which we require all suppliers and manufacturers (including their subcontractors) to read, understand and sign. Our suppliers and manufacturers must ensure that:

• Employment is freely chosen with supplier’s and manufacturer’s employees provided with a written legal contract properly negotiated.
• Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining are respected.
• Working conditions are safe and hygienic.
• Employees are aged 16 or older – underage labour is NOT used.
• Wages are paid in full at regular intervals in accordance with local Government obligations.
• Regular working hours are not more than 48 hours per week and overtime hours do not exceed a further 12 hours per week.
• No discrimination is practised based on gender, race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital or pregnancy status.
• Regular employment is provided.
• No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed.
• Suppliers must not assign or sub-contract in part or whole any manufacturing.

Our Ethical Sourcing team ensures that our Code of Conduct is understood by all suppliers and manufacturers that we engage. You can find our complete Supplier & Manufacturer Code of Conduct by clicking here.

At Brand Collective, we are committed to improving the lives and working conditions of all workers in the global garment industry, the vast majority of whom are women. In promoting workers’ rights, we are committed to challenging the gender inequality and sex discrimination faced by garment workers throughout our supply chain.

We recognise that workers’ rights must take into account the vital role women play in households and communities around the world to support and care for others; unpaid work that they do in addition to their role as paid workers

With the aim of improving conditions for garment and footwear workers and supporting their empowerment, we are committed to:

• take gender perspectives into account in all our work and address issues influenced by gender including establishing the independent BC Voice feedback platform as a platform for all workers, and especially women, to provide feedback and raise concerns
• include gender considerations in all our activities, particularly focused on supply chain, and highlight gender discrimination experienced by female workers
• work to make the experiences, needs, and struggles of female workers at all levels of garment production visible, particularly those at the bottom of supply chains, such as home-based workers, and push for recognition of their status as workers. In this regard, we have tasked our China office team to focus on soliciting feedback from female workers on their experiences and working conditions
• ensure equality of pay conditions between men and women both working for our company and in our supply chain and to perform, a yearly audit on pay conditions of both men and women and to compare the two for any discrepancies
• implement throughout our supply chain specific affirmative anti-discrimination requirements including no forced pregnancy tests for any worker
• pursue complementary legal strategies as necessary to expand the rights of women working in the garment industry
• monitor global social and economic trends, as well as supply chain practices, and raise awareness of their impact on women working in the garment industry.

The principles in this policy apply to all Brand Collective locations and businesses.

At Brand Collective, we are committed to implementing responsible purchasing practices throughout our business and external supply chain.

We recognise that responsible purchasing by our buyers and sourcing personnel will favourably affect workers’ rights and improve worker’s conditions in our supply chain. Responsible purchasing is even more important as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts supply chains and our ability to forecast demand of our customers.

With the aim of improving conditions for garment workers through responsible purchasing, we are committed to:

• take into account the impact of working conditions of our supplier’s personnel when placing orders
• work collaboratively with our suppliers to improve the working conditions of their employees
• seek to exert commercial influence over our suppliers where we are confident that improvements can be made in the working conditions of suppliers’ employees
• cease trading with suppliers showing persistent disregard for the working conditions of their employees
• implement the Responsible Sourcing principles of the Fair Labour Association as set out below:
  

In support of the Baptist World Aid Australia call to action, as well endorsing the Global Call to Action from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Brand Collective has made the following commitments to support our factory partners to survive the economic disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and to protect the wellbeing of their workers:

• We are guided by the Fair Labor Association’s Guidance on what companies should do to ensure responsible purchasing and to help protect workers’ health, safety, and livelihoods as the world responds to COVID-19
• We are maintaining clear and constant communication with our factory partners and our Asian sourcing office and have engage in one-on-one phone calls with each and every one of our factory partners to discuss their financial health and how they are weathering the impacts of COVID-19
• We are paying in full for orders that are in process or completed
• In the case of orders that are not yet in the production process, we are working in partnership with our factory partners with the aim of minimizing the impacts on them and their workers

The principles in this policy apply to all Brand Collective locations and businesses.

We value the natural environment and acknowledge the benefits responsible environmental management delivers our employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders and the broader community. Our Environmental Sustainability Policy communicates our commitment to ensuring a sustainable environment through active management of the inputs and outputs of our processes.

Click here to download a copy of our Environmental Sustainability Policy.

WE ALWAYS PARTNER WITH SUPPLIERS AND MANUFACTURERS WHO:

• Meet legal obligations in relation to environmental performance
• Establish objectives, targets and key performance indicators to improve their environmental performance
• Maintain management systems to plan, document, monitor and review their environmental performance, and
• Identify and assess and manage the environmental hazards which arise from their activities, products and services.

Our suppliers and manufacturers must employ a system that allows traceability of labour and human rights compliance (including worker’s wages and conditions) throughout their manufacturing process including third party input supplier’s country of origin.

We must be able to monitor our supplier and manufacturer’s systems on reasonable notice and do so through our Ethical Sourcing Audit program.

For more information on three key footwear suppliers’ company structure and audit programme – view document here

We commission a range of reports to monitor our suppliers. The reports include the following information:

• Name of supplier’s parent company.
• Type of products made.
• Number of workers per site.
• Percentage of female workers per site.
• Percentage of migrant/temporary workers per site.
• Date of last audit.
• Audit findings and corrective action plans.

Set out below is information for three suppliers, including a copy of reports commissioned:

10 RULES TO TRADE

1. Employment is freely chosen with supplier’s and manufacturer’s employees provided with a written legal contract properly negotiated.
2. Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining are respected.
3. Working conditions are safe and hygienic.
4. Employees are aged 16 or older – underage labour is NOT used.
5. Wages are paid in full at regular intervals in accordance with local Government obligations.
6. Regular working hours are not more than 48 hours per week and overtime hours do not exceed a further 12 hours per week.
7. No discrimination is practised based on gender, race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital or pregnancy status.
8. Regular employment is provided.
9. No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed.
10. Suppliers must not assign or sub-contract in part or whole any manufacturing.

Getting to know our Suppliers.

Our Suppliers, some of which have been working with Brand Collective for over 8 years, are a part of the Brand Collective family and are the backbone of our business.

Over the years our growth and the continued needs of our customers have shaped how we source our products and as a net result this has seen our supplier base grow to XX+ suppliers

over several regions.

We currently source our products in factories located in Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Spain, Indonesia, India, Laos, Thailand & Vietnam. We are extremely proud of the great relationships

we have with each of our suppliers, and continually work closely with them to ensure the environments in which our products are made are safe, fair, sustainable and responsible.

Did you know?

THE MAJORITY OF OUR FACTORIES ARE LOCATED IN:

Our top 20 suppliers produce over

80% OF OUR SHOES

We have over

79 FOOTWEAR SUPPLIERS

At Brand Collective, we believe that all of our team members including factory workers have the right to have their voices heard.

Under our Ethical Sourcing Program, Brand Collective encourages its suppliers to engage their workers through proactive two-way communication, which protects their rights and enhances their wellbeing.

In doing so, Brand Collective partners with its suppliers to ensure that each and every worker has access to a confidential grievance mechanism, which has been established under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

As part of this mechanism, workers have access to a confidential We Chat ™ platform that provides the workers with a confidential 24 hours a day, 7 days a week channel direct to our sourcing team and allows them the opportunity to express themselves without fear of retaliation.

We have developed a comprehensive suite of on-boarding documents that we roll out to all suppliers and manufactures. This pack is constantly being updated and enlarged and comprises the following documents:

• Who is Brand Collective.
• Service Level Agreement for Supply of Products:
• Supplier and Manufacturer Code of Conduct.
• Supplier and Manufacturer Code of Conduct Guidelines Manual and Supplier On Boarding Procedure.
• Factory Code of Conduct Assessment.
• Factory Capability Assessment.
• Corrective Action Plan template.
• Footwear Quality and Procedures Manual and Safety Matrix.
• Apparel Quality and Procedures Manual and Safety Matrix.
• Banned Chemicals Regulatory Requirements – for Footwear and Apparel.
• Supplier Packaging Specification Manual for:

Brand Collective has a zero-tolerance approach to Child and Forced Labour in any part of its supply chain. It is essential that Children are not put at risk or deprived of an education or childhood. Children must not in any way be mentally, physically, socially or morally harmed, through working in supply chains. Every effort should be made to ensure that child / forced labour does not feature in any supply chain.

Our Policy on Child & Forced Labour:

1. Introduction

The Brand Collective ‘No Child & Forced Labour Policy’ is based on the Company’s commitment to find practical, meaningful and culturally appropriate responses to support the elimination of such labour practices. It has been formulated in consideration with the acts. It therefore endorses the need for appropriate initiatives to progressively eliminate these abuses.

2. Policy

Brand Collective does not employ any person below the age of 16 years at the workplace. Brand Collective prohibits the use of child labour and forced or compulsory labour at all its facilities. No employee is made to work against his/her will or work as bonded/forced labour, or subject to corporal punishment or coercion of any type related to work.

3. Implementation

This policy is publicly available throughout the Company and clearly communicated to all employees in a manner in which it can be understood through induction programmes and policy manuals. The implementation of the policy is the responsibility of the facilities human resources department and the security staff, who do not permit minors to enter the factory as workers. There is a zero-tolerance policy towards its breach. Employment contracts and other records, documenting all relevant details of the employees, including age, are maintained at all facilities and are open to verification by any authorised personnel or relevant statutory body. The facility provides an annual report to the functional head on any incidents of child and/ or forced labour.

4. Monitoring & Remediation

4.1. Monitoring:

Periodic assessment is conducted. The human resources department undertakes random checks of records annually to ensure this policy is being upheld. In addition to this, Brand Collective appoint a third-party organisation to carry out semi-unannounced on-site inspections during the mandatory factory auditing process.

4.2. Remediation:

In the rare instances that underage workers are found working directly or indirectly for your facility, then an effective remediation plan is to be put in place and the cause understood, to prevent the issue from reoccurring.

At Brand Collective, we are committed to eradicating the existence of child labour from our supply chain. Where the use of child labour is found to exist, we are committed to placing the interests of the child at the centre of our response when assisting that child to be freed from exploitation.

The foundation of Brand Collective’s ‘Child Labour Remediation Policy’ is based on our belief that the primary consideration when we find the use of Child Labour must be the best interest of the child and our commitment to remediate as soon as possible every child that we find employed with a supplier in our supply chain.

With the aim of ensuring that any child found working in our supply chain is immediately remediated, we are committed to:

• incorporating in all initial and ongoing supplier audits, both conducted internally and externally, a detailed review of the age of a supplier’s workers to identify any use of child labour
• where child labour is found to exist, taking the following actions as soon as possible after child labour is identified:
• immediately ceasing to use a supplier where that supplier has been found to employ child labour and requiring the factory to fund the child’s education as a condition of us considering the use of the factory in the future
• monitoring our supply chain practices in relation to child labour and emphasising our zero tolerance to the use of child labour by our suppliers
• raising awareness of the impact of the use of child labour in the garment industry.

The principles in this policy apply to all Brand Collective locations and businesses.

Maintaining our commitment to the Brand Collective Code of Conduct is an important step towards achieving our vision, mission, and business objectives. At Brand Collective we have a Speak Up (Whistleblower) program that empowers our people to play an active role in the elimination of improper conduct in the workplace. The BC Speak Up (Whistleblower) program and policy facilitates the reporting of incidents relating to harassment and bullying (both experienced and observed), theft, fraud, and any other perceived inappropriate or illegal conduct.

Brand Collective is committed to transparency, truth, and trust in all that we do.

To read our whistle-blower policy, click here. If you would like to report an incident, you can also do so by clicking here to be directed to our online reporting form.