SOCIAL AND ETHICAL AUDIT REPORT

Labour practices in our global supply chains

Factory X has a long-held commitment to upholding safe and fair conditions for workers in its global supply chain.

The current ethical sourcing policy was developed with assistance from an external consultant. It provides a framework for communicating our ethical standards to our manufacturers and their subcontractors. Using the Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code as provided by the Ethical Trading Initiative as a guide, it references local labour laws, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions, principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth).

The Policy

The policy addresses key criteria for the following areas:

  • Labour rights/ Freedom of employment
  • Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining
  • Safe & hygienic working conditions
  • Regular employment
  • Child labour
  • Fair wages
  • Reasonable working hours
  • Harsh or inhumane treatment
  • Bribery & corruption
  • Non-discrimination
  • Fair and equitable treatment
  • Environmental compliance
  • Human trafficking
  • Forced labour
  • Debt bondage
  • Forced marriage

The Procedures

Factory X expects our manufacturers to implement and maintain systems for meeting the requirements stated in our Ethical Sourcing Policy and Environmental Policy.

We also expect our suppliers to provide details of their outsourcing arrangements and ensure that they provide our Ethical Sourcing Policies to all suppliers in the Factory X supply chain.

Failure to comply with any point on either our Social & Ethical Policy or Environmental Policy results in establishing a corrective action plan to correct the issue. This is agreed upon with the local manufacturer, initiated and a randomly scheduled external audit follows to ensure that the corrective action takes place in the manner and timeframe agreed.

Our Audit Process

Factory X conducts regular audits with suppliers and has an in-house certified team.

The audit process covers over 100 questions and auditors speak to both management and employees. Click here to find out more about the information gathered through our audit process. All our auditors use the following scoring system to communicate results to check:

 

1 Meets or exceeds Factory X Ethical Policy Requirements
2 Meets the majority of Factory X Ethical Policy Requirements, with a corrective action plan developed that includes one or more minor issues
3 Meets the majority of Factory X Ethical Policy Requirements with a corrective action plan developed that includes one or more major issues
4 Failed to meet Factory X Ethical Policy Requirements, with major corrective plan required and immediate action agreed
5 Failed to meet Factory X Ethical Policy Requirements with a critical action plan developed and immediate action required
6 Failed to meet Factory X Ethical Policy Requirements with a zero-tolerance issue included in the critical action plan and immediate action required
7 Failed to respond to corrective plan in a reasonable timeframe resulting in cessation of trading
8 Failure to respond to a critical action plan that includes a zero-tolerance issue; immediate cessation of trading due to major contract breach

 

Annual External Audits

We instruct annual external audits on factories and suppliers, conducted by a professionally qualified and experienced third-party certification body, to supplement and ensure the accuracy of our internal audits.

To monitor compliance, upgrade our audit process and improve the quality of our production and social environmental responsibility we have increased the levels of CSR audits and included Environmental and Chemical Risk Audits, across Tier One and 2021 commencing with Tier Two.

5 Types of Audits

  1. Factory X Audits
  2. External CSR Audits
  3. Living Wage Audits
  4. Environmental Audits
  5. Chemical Risk Audits
 Factory X's Results 2019/2020
 Factory X's Results 2018/2019
 Factory X's Results 2017/2018