The Accord
Read more about the Accord, an agreement to increase the workplace safety in factories in Bangladesh.
The making of our products creates jobs for thousands of textile workers and all of them have the right to a fair, safe and healthy workplace. The working conditions for textile workers in our supply chain is an important part of our sustainability promise.
There are many challenges when it comes to working conditions in production, mainly because of the lack of management systems in the factories. We are well aware of the challenges and our presence in the production countries through our production offices is very important for ensuring the working conditions for textile workers.
We do not own any factories, instead we work with carefully selected independent suppliers in long-term partnerships. These close collaborations enable us to have close dialogue, commit to one another and work together to have a positive impact.
Read more about our suppliersIt is our responsibility to make sure that fundamental human rights are respected in our entire value chain and that its workplaces are safe and healthy. While supply chain transparency is a major challenge in the fashion industry, it is the key to making progress within all areas of sustainability including working conditions.
Our goal is that by 2025, Lindex's suppliers who stand for 80 per cent of our production show total supply chain transparency.
All our suppliers are required to follow a code of conduct that sets the requirements for working conditions such as wages, workplace safety, working hours and more. We audit the factories on a regular basis, where we inspect and verify whether the supplier fulfil our requirements. We are also increasingly working with self-assessment to move the ownership of the sustainability agenda to our suppliers themselves.
Empowering women is one of the focus areas of our sustainability promise and we believe in working together with our business partners to achieve gender equality and empower female textile workers. In 2019, we launched our new code of conduct, making us one of the first major fashion companies to integrate gender equality into our requirements of textile production and all business partnerships. The Lindex Code of Conduct is based on ETI’s (Ethical Trading Initiative) code of conduct, but has an enhanced focus on gender equality.
Read The Lindex Code of ConductIn compliance with the code of conduct and local law, our suppliers are required to pay at least the country’s statutory minimum wage to their employees. However, the minimum wage is often not at a level that cover the workers’ basic needs.
Everyone should have a wage they can live on. Making sure our whole value chain is progressing within living wage is an important part of our sustainability promise. Our work with WE Women by Lindex supports this aim, as we believe that proper management systems is a precondition for having a positive impact on the wage issue.
We are well aware of the challenges regarding wages in the supply chain and it is a very complex issue that requires collaboration between a number of stakeholders to be resolved. Factories often produce for many different brands and there needs to be long term solutions that benefits the workers no matter which brand is being produced in the factory at the time. Wages need to be negotiated among the parties of the labour market and the government has a key role in setting minimum wages and labour laws. We as a company must do everything we can and work together in the industry to have a positive impact.