Ethical Responsibility
At Glassons sourcing ethically is our responsibility, we take this very seriously and we continue to improve visibility in all areas of our operations.
For Glassons, an ethical factory is one which focuses on worker welfare, fair wages, a safe working environment, upholds international labour rights, and respects the environment.
Partnerships and Initiatives are central in our commitment to ethical manufacturing. We have introduced a range of initiatives, including:
- Glassons achieved a Top 20% ranking of retailers in the Ethical fashion report
- Delivered certified fabrics into our product ranges that also focus on social responsibility
- Partnered with QIMA to run an independent hotline, supporting worker voices in our factories
- Published learnings from our ‘Higher Wage Project’ in our 2022 sustainability report.
- Began working with Oxfam NZ
Social compliance is important to Glassons and a continuing process in which we endeavour to protect the health, safety, and rights of workers in our supply chain and the environment in which they operate.
We value our relationships with our Supply partners, having worked with many for more than 15 years. The strong partnerships that we have formed have allowed us to work collaboratively to help deliver our Sustainability Commitments and Ethical Responsibility. We demand high standards and transparency from our suppliers. All manufacturers are required to adhere to our Code of Conduct for Ethical and Social Compliance based on human rights laws.
Our supply factories are located in:
- China
- India
- Bangladesh
- Vietnam
Subcontracting
Visibility is a priority and essential to our Ethical Responsibility. Unauthorised subcontracting is a very real issue in global supply chains. We have worked very hard with our supply partners over the years to build trust and transparency, putting worker welfare front and centre. Our suppliers are clear of their responsibility around disclosure.
As part of our manufacturing authority, suppliers must disclose all information on where our product is being made. We continue to work with suppliers and continue to monitor for unauthorised sub-contracting.
We value our partnerships with key organisations to help support this journey, this journey needs collaboration on a wide scale to help support the industry and the people with in it. We have aligned with the key partners below and look forward to collaborating more as our journey continues.
Glassons recognise the International Labour Organisations (ILO’s) international labour standards aimed at ensuring sustainable work worldwide in conditions of freedom, equity, security and dignity.
Glassons is committed to paying a fair wage to workers who make our clothes. We have in place independent auditing of factories to verify workers are being paid the legally required minimum wage and receiving all mandated benefits.
However, we recognize that a minimum wage does not meet what would be defined as a living wage, so we have taken some very positive steps to actively promote higher wages.
In 2021, we designed a roadmap to support our commitment to higher wages.