Global health and safety

Gildan’s Global Executive Health and Safety Steering Committee, comprised of senior management oversees Gildan’s Health and Safety program. It is co-chaired by our Executive Vice-President, Chief Administrative Officer, and our Executive Vice-President, Chief Operating Officer. Our Global Health and Safety Technical Committee, comprised of regional health and safety managers and directors, participates by elevating relevant safety initiatives from the shop floor to management for global understanding and response.

The Company consolidates data from Gildan-operated facilities into a Global Health and Safety scorecard. The scorecard data are categorized by first aid, work-related injuries, lost-time accidents, serious injuries and fatalities, lost workdays, working hours, and injury severity rates. The scorecard is shared and discussed between senior leadership on a weekly basis and is reported to the Board’s Compensation and Human Resources Committee quarterly.

To ensure compliance with health and safety standards, Gildan-operated factories have comprehensive frequent audits conducted by in-house safety coordinators and auditors as well as third-party auditors mandated by several trusted external stakeholders.

Our Global Health and Safety Policy drives our efforts to foster a zero-harm culture. Our policy applies to and is shared with our operations worldwide. It includes our commitments to:

• Providing a safe and healthy work environment that aids in preventing work-related injuries and illnesses

• Reducing safety hazards and risks through innovative processes and technologies and the use of safe raw materials and supplies

• Ensuring compliance with applicable occupational health and safety laws and other requirements in countries where we operate

• Educating and motivating our employees, contractors, and suppliers to work safely and responsibly

• Fostering openness, consultation, and participation of our employees, their representatives, and other stakeholders in occupational health and safety matters 

• Evaluating our health and safety management system and actively seeking opportunities to continuously improve our performance 

Our facility managers drive the implementation of local health and safety management programs through our global Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management system. Annual incentives for facility managers are based, in part, on progress against key health and safety objectives. The OHS portion makes up 10% to 25% of eligible incentives, depending on the region and business unit.

Worker participation and consultation are foundational pieces of our OHS management system. We have established joint management-worker health and safety committees at all our manufacturing facilities, and at most of our administrative offices and distribution centres. These committees meet regularly to review safety performance, risk assessments, and opportunities for reducing risk. Committee members are actively involved in facility inspections, incident investigations, and identification of potential solutions.

We strive to proactively identify hazards and control risks through Job Hazard/Safety Analysis (JHA/JSA) and Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA). We apply these tools by observing facility areas and specific job tasks within a job assignment. From our observations and employee participation, we identify potential risks and assess the risk level present. We engage workers through safety committees and volunteerism to seek remedies to reduce the risks associated with each task.

While JHAs, JSAs, and FMEAs provide us with tools to find, measure, and reduce risk, we use every opportunity to improve. If an incident occurs, we investigate and determine root causes and corrective actions. These findings are then shared through:

• One-on-one discussions with employees in the immediate area of risk and their manager and/or safety representatives
• Discussions with others within the department close to the risk
• Communications through pre-shift safety meetings and message boards across each manufacturing facility
• Weekly reviews with global senior management and with manufacturing health and safety leaders
• Monthly reviews within the Global Health and Safety Technical Committee and with plant managers, Human Resources managers, and safety representatives 

We classify incidents by category (i.e., event/exposure, body part affected, type of injury, department, job, and shift) and review them regularly to identify potential trends and opportunities to reduce risk. We also analyze data to determine which operations and roles are at a higher risk of exposure to musculoskeletal disorders. At all our factories, we conduct health awareness campaigns and offer a comprehensive ergonomics program to identify early symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders and areas for improvement.

Gildan’s open-door environment encourages employees to speak up about real or suspected misconduct or hazardous situations, including extreme weather conditions, and to stop work when they are concerned about a potential injury or illness that could harm them or one of their co-workers.

All employees are encouraged to report concerns and any incidents in-person to their manager without fear of reprisal. Recognizing that this may be uncomfortable to some, we offer additional mechanisms for reporting concerns. Employees can:

• Report concerns to their manager’s supervisor, a member of the facility management team, Human Resources, or a safety representative

• File an observation anonymously, either electronically or through paper, to an observation station

• Report concerns anonymously through our grievance mechanisms, including our Ethics and Compliance Hotline as outlined in our Whistleblowing Policy for Employees and External Stakeholders 

Gildan’s Global Whistleblowing Policy for Employees and External Stakeholders prohibits reprisals against employees or external stakeholders who in good faith come forward with safety-related concerns. We communicate the policy to all employees and post it in our facilities for all to view.

We recognize individual employees for reporting work-related hazards and offering solutions through programs. Examples include our Formula for Change program in Honduras, the See Something Say Something program within our yarn-spinning operations in the U.S., and similar programs in the Dominican Republic and at our U.S. distribution centres as part of our Near Miss Safety program.

We conduct health and safety orientation and onboarding for all new employees, which gives them an understanding of general work-related policies and hazards. New employees are also provided job-specific training covering standard operating procedures, hazards, and operational controls. Additionally, we conduct periodic health and safety training for employees at all levels, at all Company-operated facilities, including monthly classroom training on defined topics relevant to individual jobs, sites, and countries of operation.

We also:

• Provide video training through our Gildan Academy platform

• Conduct pre-shift safety meetings to cover topics as they arise

• Host an annual Safety Week awareness campaign and annual Safety Leadership Summit

We perform an annual training needs assessment or gap analysis to determine our training requirements. We consider all known internal and external exposures associated with our industry, review first aid and injury logs, and consult with our people through safety committees and observations to determine health and safety training needs or requirements.

Contractors go through the same rigorous training when working on Gildan sites and are required to comply with all our health and safety policies.