BESTSELLER strives to uphold human rights across our value chain. While we strive to uphold high standards, we understand that challenges persist and that our efforts must continuously evolve.
We adopt a consistent and holistic approach to supply chain management – and adhere to the International Bill of Human Rights, ILO core conventions, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
Risks evolve. So does our work
Improving factory conditions is not a one-time exercise. Risks evolve, and so must our response. At BESTSELLER, we continuously update our policies and assessment tools to reflect emerging issues, shifting risk profiles, and lessons learned from the ground.
We collaborate with suppliers and factory managers to support continuous improvement and engage with local and international stakeholders, including unions, NGOs, and subject-matter experts, to ensure we are monitoring the right issues and addressing the concerns that matter most to workers.
By keeping our systems responsive and grounded in real-world insights, we aim to uphold human rights not just on paper, but in practice.
A few highlights
We engage in industry initiatives to make a social impact in our supply chain. 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.
Here are a few highlighted initiatives:
We wish to have a supply chain that safeguards the welfare of those working in the factories. To achieve this, we have our Factory Standards Programme, which monitors, assesses and mitigates various risks, alongside other initiatives that raise awareness of occupational health and safety (OHS) standards and equip suppliers to address risks as well as elevate industry-wide practices.
To advance these efforts, BESTSELLER is a signatory to the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry, a legally binding agreement between global brands, IndustriALL Global Union and UNI Global Union. As a signatory, BESTSELLER supports the continuation of the health and safety programme in Bangladesh through the RSC, responsible for inspections, remediation, and workplace programmes since June 2021. In January 2023, we signed the Pakistan Accord, having worked alongside other stakeholders to establish this country-specific programme.
All BESTSELLER factories in Bangladesh and Pakistan, and their employees, are covered by this agreement. Factories undergo regular inspections by engineers, who issue Corrective Action Plans (CAPs) when concerns are identified. BESTSELLER monitors factory progress and informs the Accord Secretariat upon completion. Suppliers that do not agree to Accord monitoring and training are not onboarded into our supply chain.
In Bangladesh, BESTSELLER also supports the ILO’s Pilot on the Employment Injury Scheme (EIS), which provides social protection for garment workers facing workplace death or permanent disability. The aim is for the Bangladeshi government to adopt a law by 2026, ensuring long-term financing for worker protections.
Freedom of Association (FoA) is a fundamental right that enables workers to advocate for fair treatment and safe working conditions. Without effective worker representation and social dialogue, the risk of other human and labour rights violations increases, including discrimination, unsafe working conditions, unfair wages, excessive working hours, and gender-based violence.
At BESTSELLER, we are working to uphold FoA within our supply chain. Our Code of Conduct mandates respect for workers' rights to organise, and through regular monitoring, we check that worker representation is in place through trade unions and Workplace Coordination Committees (WCCs). We also work to facilitate that workers who choose to join unions are not subject to discrimination.
Where WCCs are underperforming or we find concerns about respect for FoA, we enrol factory management teams in educational programmes to promote best practices for effective social dialogue. For example, in Myanmar, we partner with MADE's social dialogue training. Many of our gender equity programmes also include modules on addressing workplace concerns, such as reporting issues to management and ensuring workers' voices are heard. In Türkiye, BESTSELLER supports a social dialogue and workplace productivity pilot programme designed to demonstrate the benefits of effective worker-management dialogue.
We recognise that our sourcing countries have different cultural heritage and individual understanding of various topics. Nonetheless, we are committed to achieving equal opportunities and responsibilities at our suppliers, regardless of gender and where they are in the world.
Since 2012, BESTSELLER has been working with HERproject – an initiative run by Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) that develops tailor-made workplace education programmes that increase well-being, confidence, and economic potential of low-income women working in global supply chains. As well as giving women important life skills, our suppliers enrolled in the programmes report of improved workplace communication and higher productivity. At the same time, workers report feeling more self-confident entering dialogue with management to find common solutions to everyday issues.
Historically, BESTSELLER has worked with BSR to deliver women’s empowerment programmes in Bangladesh, India, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and most recently Pakistan. However, with BSR not covering Turkey, which accounts for roughly 15 percent of our sourcing volumes, we have partnered with local NGO, ACEV to develop and implement a women's empowerment programme for our suppliers in Turkey.
Our latest salient human rights risk assessment highlighted that migrant workers - both internal and international - face heightened risks of abuse and discrimination in the global apparel supply chain. This discrimination can take many forms, such as pay disparities, excessive wage deductions, poor working conditions, and forced labour. Given the well-documented increased risk for human and labour rights abuses, we are committed to enhanced due diligence to safeguard this group.
In 2024, we partnered with local organisation Upfront to pilot a two-phase project at five factories in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, India. The first phase involved a comprehensive study to understand the challenges faced by migrant workers, while the second phase focused on designing tailored solutions to improve their inclusion and well-being in the workplace. As part of phase two of the programme, 14 multilingual help desk facilitators were trained on social protection rights, and five help desks were established - one in each factory. This resulted in 394 workers applying for social protection schemes, unlocking over 11 million INR in benefits for individuals previously unaware of their entitlements.
We assess human rights risks, focusing on issues like forced labour, health and safety, gender-based violence, discrimination, labour rights, freedom of association, migrant labour, wage monitoring, working hours, and high-risk regions.
Read more about it in our annual report and our due diligence report.
Through our policies, we seek to uphold the principles of good governance and social and environmental stewardship and convey such corporate culture to all our stakeholders.