The History of Our Efforts to Prevent Labor Abuses
Doing business the right way has been important to us since our founding in 1976. And that means supporting the rights of workers who make our products around the world. Liz Claiborne has always insisted that suppliers maintain a fair and humane workplace. But experience has taught us that isn't always enough. Supporting workers' rights is a truly challenging and complex problem, and further progress will only be made by those with a serious commitment to improving conditions.

New Level of Commitment
In 1993, we formalized our review process for new suppliers, including a series of tough questions about factory and working conditions. By 1994, we had taken matters a step further — distributing a formal, written code of conduct for all contractors doing business with Liz Claiborne to follow.

But we also knew that establishing workplace standards was just the beginning. We had to find better ways to make sure they were upheld — that they were more than just words on paper.

Fact Finding Missions
In July of 1994, we embarked on our first workers' rights fact-finding mission, visiting Central America with a US-based labor rights group that had brought specific human rights issues to our attention. By hearing workers' concerns with our own ears, we began to truly appreciate the enormity of the challenge. Distance, cultural differences and economic conditions — all of these factors made overnight change impossible. Instead, it was clear, progress would have to be made through small but significant steps.

Working with Local Human Rights Groups
In order to overcome language, cultural and other barriers, we sought assistance from local human rights groups. The results: local human rights groups conducted independent monitoring projects in El Salvador and Guatemala, releasing their audit findings to the public.

These monitoring projects produced much better information about what was really going on in factories. Why? Because workers felt more comfortable expressing themselves with people who spoke their language, understood their culture and were respected in the local community.

In sum, we'd begun the important process of learning to work with human rights groups on the ground. And that valuable knowledge helped us to put in place our current monitoring system. It also convinced us that we could make more progress by pooling our resources — not just with human and labor rights groups, but with the US government and leading apparel and footwear companies.

Industry Leadership
In 1996, Robert Reich, then the Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, invited Liz Claiborne Inc. to participate in the Fashion Industry Forum, a workshop to raise awareness of labor and human rights abuses in the international workforce.

Liz Claiborne, in fact, was one of the few major apparel companies to agree to participate in the June 1996 forum — a gathering of representatives from business, labor and human rights groups committed to finding ways to improve working conditions. The event's success, in turn, prompted a meeting between apparel industry leaders and President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Labor Secretary Reich and Commerce Secretary Mickey Cantor, among others. The result: the birth of the Apparel Industry Partnership (AIP), a White House-sponsored task force which was composed of leading apparel and footwear companies, labor unions, consumer advocates, religious organizations and human rights groups.

The Apparel Industry Partnership (AIP)
In 1998, the AIP introduced a breakthrough proposal to improve global working conditions. Drafted by human rights and consumer groups as well as leading apparel companies, this blueprint for how to identify and correct problems in factories around the world is the basis on which the Fair Labor Association was established and is now benefiting workers and consumers.

The Fair Labor Association (FLA)
The AIP developed standards for improving working conditions — namely, the Workplace Code of Conduct and the Principles of Monitoring - and created a structure for an entity, the Fair Labor Association (FLA), to review the effectiveness of the participating companies compliance programs.

The requirements of the FLA have evolved over the years to enhance disclosure. Participants of the FLA include human and labor rights groups, universities and corporations such as adidas, Eddie Bauer, Liz Claiborne Inc., Nike, Reebok, Patagonia, Phillips Van Heusen and over 170 universities.

The FLA requires participating companies to do the following:

• Conduct internal audits of factories.
• Allow FLA auditors to review internal audit records.
• Communicate the workplace standards to management and LCI associates.
• Establish a channel of communication with associates.
• Submit suppliers' factories list to the FLA. All factories included are subject to unannounced audits. The selection is made by the FLA staff. Approximately 5% are selected annually.
• Authorize the FLA to formally disclose its findings to the public on their website.