Patagonia invited other brands to adopt a new standard it has developed with Verité since 2011 in a bid to end the use of labor brokers who are charging workers across Asia thousands of dollars for factory jobs.
Patagonia vowed to address the issue in 2011 after an audit revealed that labor brokers were charging migrant workers excessive fees – sometimes exceeding $5,000 – to place them in jobs at a Taiwanese factory that supplies fabrics to Patagonia.
“It creates a form of indentured servitude that could also qualify, less politely, as modern-day slavery,” Patagonia explained in a post in the company's blog, The Cleanest Line. “And it’s been happening in our own supply chain.”
After discovering abuses, Patagonia partnered with Verité-an NGO dedicated to ensuring people around the world work under safe, fair and legal conditions-to assess migrant worker hiring practices at four suppliers in Taiwan.
“The results startled us,” the company wrote. “We learned that it can take a worker as many as two years to repay a labor broker, and that most labor contracts last only three years before the worker has to return home and the process (and fees) begin again. It became clear to us that we needed to make significant changes-and to help alert others to both the problem and the need for change.”
Patagonia set out to develop a new standard, institute changes in its supply chain, repay current workers, and share its recommended standards with other companies eager to eradicate similar practices by their suppliers.
Working with Verité, Patagonia developed a comprehensive migrant worker standard that covered every aspect of employment, including pre-hiring interactions, labor contracts, wages and fees, retention of passports, living and working conditions, grievance procedures and repatriation.
A forum in Taiwan
Then, in December 2014, Patagonia hosted a forum for our Taiwanese suppliers to explain the new standard that, among many things, requires them to stop charging fees to foreign workers hired on or after June 1, 2015. They can either pay the fees themselves or hire workers directly without the use of labor brokers.
Patagonia also mandated its factories repay currently employed workers, who were hired before June 1, all fees that exceeded the legal amount. Patagonia staff also met with Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor Workforce Development Agency, which ended up sending employees to train Patagonia's suppliers on the practice of direct hiring.
Patagonia has since applied it migrant worker standard to its entire supply chain and made it available to any company that would like to adopt it.
In January, the White House invited Patagonia Chief Operating Officer Doug Freeman and Director of Social and Environmental Responsibility Cara Chacon to present the initiative at the White House Forum on Combating Human Trafficking in Supply Chains. The forum, which was led by Secretary of State John Kerry, was also attended by leaders from Walmart, HP and SAP Cloud.
“We were honored to have the opportunity to share our plan and progress,” Chacon said. “Though the work is challenging, it’s not impossible. For the sake of workers, we hope other companies will recognize that and move ahead with their own efforts.”
