BESTSELLER's Social & Labour Requirements are designed to address the identified salient risks among our tier 0, 1 and 2 supply chain production units. Our assessment therefore covers over 150 indicators of risk in the following specific areas during on-site visits.
- Management Systems & Licenses
- Ethics & Transparency
- Child labour
- Young Workers
- Forced Labour
- Discrimination
- Employment Practices (Hiring, Contracts etc.)
- Working hours
- Wages and Benefits
- Employee Treatment (Disciplinary Practices, Harassment & Abuse)
- Employee Involvement (Freedom of Association & Collective Bargaining, Employee Dialogue)
- Health & Safety (Management & Training, Electrical safety, Building/structural safety, Emergency preparedness & Fire safety, Chemical safety & Management, Machine & Equipment safety, PPE, First aid, Health checks, Medical facilities and Dormitories)
BESTSELLER is also a signatory to the Social & Labour Convergence Program (SLCP), which aims to reduce duplicative social & labour audits and audit fatigue, by offering one Converged Assessment Framework (CAF) that is accepted across multiple brands. The data from the CAF can be shared with multiple customers via the SLCP Gateway, meaning factories save both time and financial resources by substituting multiple 3rd party audits with one SLCP verification.
BESTSELLER accepts verified SLCP assessments, as equal to 3rd party audits and we are step by step integrating our work with SLCP (and as a HIGG member, its corresponding HIGG tool, FSLM (Facility Social & Labour Module)) into our own systems. BESTSELLER supports suppliers that wish to use the SLCP tools by accepting the SLCP verified data, but we do not require suppliers to adopt SLCP if they do not wish to do so.
Where a factory’s assessment reports show room for improvement, we have a set process to follow, which you can read more about in our chapter on remediation protocols and grievance mechanisms.
Where a factory’s assessment reports show room for improvement, a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) is created, and our local colleagues visit the factories and provide them with guidance and training to make sure the necessary improvements are made and implemented according to the CAP.
Data from each factory assessment is fed into our internal information systems, as the basis for our Social & Labour Factory Rating and our Social & Labour Supplier Rating, which is provided to other business functions, including buying teams, to help brands make informed purchasing practices.
We’re committed to promoting dignity, equality, and safe working conditions for all people across our value chain.
As part of that commitment to generating positive impact we engage in industry initiatives, and we also enroll suppliers in a range of workplace programmes. These programmes target industry-specific challenges, such as women empowerment, workers' rights and workplace health and safety.
We identify and monitor environmental risks in our supply chain and use the insights from independent specialist consultants to upgrade our factory assessment methodology, policies, and environmental risk mitigation work going forward. And we measure performance through our Supplier Environment Rating and focus on environmental impact initiatives where they can make a difference.