Governance
Our relationships with our contractors are governed by our Global Responsible Production and Sourcing Policy, which establishes guidelines for responsible production planning practices to help ensure that the sourcing, purchase of materials, and manufacturing of products across all Gildan brands are aligned with our Code of Conduct. Our Sourcing Team works to ensure compliance with our Policy and related standards.
Approach
Gildan requires all finished product contractors and key raw material suppliers to uphold and respect Gildan’s ethical, social, and environmental standards as a condition of doing business with us. Our contracts require our finished product contractors to formally acknowledge our standards and agree to comply with them throughout the term of their relationship with us. They also must sign a legally binding vendor agreement, which outlines our expectations, including:
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Compliance with Gildan’s Code of Conduct, as well as applicable laws
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Compliance with Gildan’s Code of Ethics including but not limited to bribery, anti-corruption, and anti-fraud
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Assessments and remediation
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Other assessments suppliers may be subject to, such as Fair Labor Association (FLA) assessments
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Additional policies on unauthorized subcontracting, counterfeiting, and others
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Establishment of grievance mechanisms within their facilities
Gildan’s Social Compliance program is designed to ensure that our Gildan-operated facilities, as well as those of our finished-product contractors, comply with our Code of Conduct, local and international laws, and best practice industry codes to which we adhere. This includes those of SEDEX Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA), Fair Labor Association (FLA), Better Work, and the Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP).
Due diligence and monitoring
When selecting finished product contractors, we conduct a due diligence process to help ensure that the established business relationships will comply with Gildan policies, standards, and applicable laws and regulations.
When sourcing from new finished product contractors, Gildan conducts various investigations and assessments to review the partner’s history, including reputation and any past instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations, workplace policies and standards, quality control, and cost efficiency. This information guides Gildan’s sourcing decision process. For workplace policies and standards, Gildan requires a profile and self-assessment from every new facility, conducts a full audit of the facility, which then receives a colour rating after the audit. If the facility receives a green, yellow, or orange rating, the facility is approved for production. Gildan does not approve facilities that receive a red or black rating.
Gildan conducts audits of existing finished product contractors using a risk-based approach that takes into account the results and ratings of past audits. In the event of non-compliance, our Social Compliance team will work with the contractor to develop a management action plan, which ensures appropriate mitigation is put in place to prevent recurrence. Progress on each action plan is tracked through our Corporate Social Responsibility data platform. If a contractor is not able to demonstrate improvements within a prescribed timeframe, we may reserve the right to terminate our relationship with them.