Fair Labor Association
English (en) svenska (sv)
Contents
History
In 1999 the FLA was born out of the U.S based Apparel Industry Partnership, which was a organization with a commitment to apparel and footwear companies, human and labor laws and consumer rights. They had been working for a couple of years to compose a common code of conduct and principles of the supervision and monitoring of production. AIP was also associated with colleges and universities, to jointly initiate work and to close all "sweat shops" and improve working conditions worldwide. Today, FLA cares about workers' rights, and strive to improve their conditions.
FLA's organization
The FLA’s board has 19 members and is the FLA's decision-making body. They consist of representatives from businesses, colleges and universities and NGOs. FLA's headquarters is in Washington DC but they also have a European office located in Geneva, Switzerland.
Members
FLA has about 28 member companies, for example, Adidas Group, H&M, Nike, Patagonia, Asics, Reebok, Puma and about 200 American schools and universities and dozens of suppliers.
Operations
In all its projects and initiatives the FLA utilizing strength of its diverse members, including both companies, schools and suppliers. FLA uses something called third party usage. Anyone – an employee, business or any individual, can contact and report to the FLA. It could be about findings of abusive behavior that are conducted in a factory that supplies products to some of FLA's members. Complaints are kept confidential and are thoroughly examined.
FLA allows independent monitoring and controls to ensure that factories comply with the standards established. FLA publishes all its reports (on their website) for the shareholders, member companies and consumers, to increase its credibility and to ease responsible hopping decisions.
FLA's code of conduct is based on International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions but is also supplemented by the FLA's own benchmarks for compliance. The Code has been translated into 23 different languages.
Controls
Independent external inspections (audit) are a large part of the FLA's core operations. These controls can sometimes be performed by any of its affiliates. But then the company must first be authorized by the FLA. The accreditation programs allow companies and independent organizations to be accredited to perform audits in factories. All ispections must be independent, impartial and show great accuracy in the assessment of the factory and how well the code is followed.
