The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) and the Fair Labor Association (FLA) re-launched and enhanced the AAFA/FLA Apparel & Footwear Industry Commitment to Responsible Recruitment.
The Commitment, established in 2018, is intended to align the industry around a commitment to the fair treatment of foreign migrant workers in the global textiles, apparel, footwear, and travel goods supply chain.
Under the original Commitment to Responsible Recruitment, each signatory commits to working with partners to create conditions where workers do not pay for their jobs, retain control of their travel documents, have freedom of movement, and are advised of the terms of their employment before employment.
The enhanced Commitment to Responsible Recruitment is built on the past five years. Signatories commit to creating conditions where workers receive a timely refund of any fees and costs paid to obtain or maintain their job if such conditions were already imposed.
The signing companies also agree to work to implement these practices, to incorporate the Commitment into their social compliance standards within one year of signing and to periodically report the signatory’s actions to embed and implement the Commitment, such as through sustainability and/or modern slavery legal disclosures.
Together with their members and Commitment signatories, AAFA and FLA will continue to review the enhanced Commitment to identifying areas of future improvement.
“All workers must be treated with dignity and respect, period,” said Steve Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association. “Regrettably, migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to being abused, from having their passports and other travel documents withheld, to being put in debt bondage, or indentured servitude situations. By signing this Commitment, the textile, apparel, footwear, and travel goods industry members are working to ensure that migrant workers are never put in these terrible situations and are fully and fairly compensated.”
“The new Commitment to Responsible Recruitment is vital to protecting migrant workers from recruitment debt that could lead to forced labor,” said Sharon Waxman, president and CEO of the Fair Labor Association. “By bringing together companies across the apparel and footwear industry, we help ensure that the employer pays for Recruitment, not the workers. We are glad to see so many companies and their suppliers take these important steps and believe that the new provisions of the Commitment will drive real change for workers.”
The full text of the Commitment to Responsible Recruitment, details, and information on how companies can join the Commitment is here.
