Working conditions and human rights

Working Conditions and Human Rights
in our supply chain

Our supply chain is a very important piece of the sustainability puzzle, where both people and planet are key stakeholders of our actions. On this page we will focus on working conditions and human rights in our supply chain.

To learn more about what we're doing for the environment in our supply chain, please read more here.

It is important that all people across our value chain are treated with respect and dignity, and that equality is demonstrated in everything we do. It is NA‑KD's responsibility to respect human rights throughout our entire value chain, and to promote human rights values whenever we can.

Our Supplier Code of Conduct

At NA‑KD we are strong believers of industry collaboration to drive change towards a more sustainable fashion industry. We are active members of amfori, a business association aimed at improving social conditions in global supply chains. We work according to the amfori BSCI framework together with our suppliers, to facilitate that all factories in our supply chain are agreeing to the same principles, ethics and values when it comes to working conditions.

We require that all new suppliers sign our Supplier Code of Conduct and conduct social audits within 6 months from signing contract.

amfori BSCI

The amfori BSCI Code of Conduct has been adopted by NA‑KD and is at the centre of our work with social and ethical compliance. The amfori BSCI Code of Conduct for business partners and producers is aligned with international recommendations, norms and conventions such as:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Children’s Rights and Business Principles
UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights
OECD Guidelines for Responsible Business Conduct
UN Global Compact
International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions

Passing it on

NA‑KD clearly communicates with the Code of Conduct and its Terms of Implementation that suppliers are expected to cascade the values it holds further up their own supply chains. The Code of Conduct is added to our purchase agreements and all suppliers working with NA‑KD need to sign it. The Code of Conduct covers relevant labour rights, as well as environmental protection and anti‑corruption.

Human Rights Policy

Our human rights work is based on the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGP) and we are currently accelerating our efforts to implement these principles. The UNGP’s clarifies what it means for businesses to respect human rights; to have a policy commitment in place, to work with human rights due diligence across the value chain and have mechanism in place for people to be able to ""blow the whistle"" in case this is needed, and to provide for remediation depending on if the business has caused, contributed to or is merely linked to the harm done through its products or services.

You can read NA-KD’s Human Rights Policy here and more on our salient human rights here.

The amfori BSCI Code of Conduct

The Rights of Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining

Our enterprise respects the right of workers to form unions or other kinds of workers' associations and to engage in collective bargaining.

No discrimination

Our enterprise provides equal opportunities and does not discriminate against workers.

Fair remuneration

Our enterprise provides equal opportunities and does not discriminate against workers.

Decent working hours

Our enterprise observes the law regarding hours of work.

Occupational health and safety

Our enterprise ensures a healthy and safe working environment, assessing risk and taking all necessary measures to eliminate or reduce it.

No child labour

Our enterprise does not hire any worker below the legal minimum age, and never less than 15 years.

Special protection for young workers

Our enterprise provides special protection to any workers that are not yet adults.

No precarious employment

Our enterprise hires workers on the basis of documented contracts according to the law.

No bonded labour

Our enterprise does not engage in any form of forced servitude, trafficked or non-voluntary labour.

Protection of the environment

Our enterprise takes the necessary measures to avoid environmental degradation.

Ethical business behaviour

Our enterprise does not tolerate any acts of corruption, extortion, embezzlement or bribery.

Decent living wages

As stated in the amfori BSCI Code of Conduct, we expect our suppliers to respect the right of the workers to receive fair remuneration that is sufficient to provide them with a decent living for themselves and their families. As equality is a value that we live and breath at NA‑KD, this is also something which we strive to work towards for all thousands of workers in our supply chain.

A joint effort

As defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO), a fair living wage is one which fulfils the basic needs of workers and their families, as well as providing some flexible income, within normal working hours. This is a struggle as the legal minimum wage in some countries may be lower than the wage needed to get a decent living. The entire fashion industry needs to work together to drive the change needed, and to raise the wages of millions of garment workers across the globe.

Workers unions

The ILO and global trade unions stress the importance of allowing and respecting workers unions and the right of collective bargaining as a means to drive improved working conditions and wage levels. This is something that we expect of our suppliers as the first principle in our Supplier Code of Conduct that all suppliers have to sign.

WHAT WE DO

Like most fashion companies, we don’t own any factories or make our own clothes – we outsource production to independent manufacturers. This means we don’t pay garment workers’ salaries directly and we can't decide how much they're paid. In 2021, we started looking into worker wages in our supply chain and mapped out the situation in the factories producing for NA-KD. This is a first step that will be the foundation for our work to define a living wage strategy in 2022. As a small brand and organisation, we depend on third-party-verified data through social audits, which we used to map out worker wages, representation, count and gender divide. You can find the results in our Sustainability Report for 2021.

Due diligence

At NA‑KD we strive to work throughout our supply chain and business relationships to identify, assess, monitor, and mitigate any potential human rights violations, and to remedy if NA‑KD has caused or contributed to potential harm done. We strive to use our leverage in our business relationships, and to use a positive impact in situations where we have no control.

Capacity building program

Having our suppliers registered on the amfori BSCI platform is part of our suppliers onboarding process. Within 6 months from signing the purchase agreement, the supplier should register on the platform. We expect suppliers to conduct a self-assessment and take part of the capacity building program offered on the platform. The capacity building program includes both online and face to face training in our two biggest supplier countries; China and Turkey.

Social Audit

All our suppliers must hold a valid social audit or verified assessment at the start of their business relationship with NA-KD. The social audits cover the content of the Supplier Code of Conduct, including all salient human rights and working conditions. The social audits are performed by a certified third-party auditing company, which gathers information via documentation and worker dialogues. We allow our producers to choose between our approved systems for social audits or verified self-assessments: Higg vFSLM and amfori BSCI as our preferred systems, as well as Sedex SMETA and SA8000.

Ethical due diligence

To rate ethical business behaviour the auditor evaluates (amongst other topics) whether the auditee can identify situations and activities where acts of corruption, extortion or bribery are most likely to occur in its business. The auditee must show in what way they are preventing corruption (e.g. through training of workers about the benefits of a work environment free from corruption), actively rewarding workers and management’s honest behaviour and how they take measures to prevent and fight any act of corruption.

COLLABORATION FOR BUILDING AND FIRE SAFETY

NA-KD is a signatory to the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry, together with trade unions and other brands. The Accord aims to ensure building and fire safety in factories in Bangladesh, and includes a commitment to expand to additional production countries latest 2023. Read more here.