At Liz Claiborne Inc., we know that high standards are only the beginning. It requires a serious commitment in order to make meaningful progress in the effort to improve working conditions. That's why we've put systems in place that allow us to identify and prevent problems in factories around the world. And that's why we're constantly striving to improve our systems, both our own corporate practices as well as our collaborative efforts with other industry members, human rights groups, and through FLA participation.

Liz Claiborne Inc. Enforcement Mechanism
As a Company, and now that we have an exclusive purchasing agency agreement with Li and Fung, partner with them to enforce our Standards through the following mechanisms:

Spot Inspection - Quality Assurance Field Associates and Sourcing Associates support our compliance effort.  Both Li and Fung and Liz Claiborne Inc. associates conduct both scheduled and unscheduled spot inspections of contractors' factories.

Training - Because a successful inspection depends upon knowing where and what to look for, our internal compliance auditors that conduct on-site visits must attend training in how to identify workplace problems.

Human Rights Questionnaire - Liz Claiborne Inc. internal auditors fill out a comprehensive human rights questionnaire for every supplier. The questionnaire requires our auditors to fill out an assessment of each factory to provide detailed information on its compliance with the Liz Claiborne Workplace Code of Conduct. This strict set of standards prohibits child labor, forced labor and all forms of harassment or abuse, in addition to ensuring workers are paid the minimum wage, setting limits on overtime hours and requiring employers to honor workers' rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. We are currently partnering with Li and Fung to develop a new questionnaire and to train internal auditors in order to ensure continuity and consistency in our auditing standards.

Education - Liz Claiborne Inc. requires contractors to post our Standards, written in appropriate local languages, where workers can easily see them, such as factory common areas. However, we are aware that workers need not only to see our code of conduct posted, but also to understand what their rights are. We continue to explore ways to facilitate this, and finding the best approach by country.

Independent Monitoring - In order to better determine if suppliers are upholding our Standards, we implemented independent monitoring projects in Guatemala and El Salvador. We learned things from these two programs which have helped us improve our own internal monitoring programs. Now, by participating in the FLA monitoring program, we are able to expand the independent monitoring concept to more countries, sometimes combining efforts with other participating companies.

Open Lines of Communications - Because even regular inspections cannot hope to identify every workplace problem, we've taken steps to establish lines of communications that allow workers to contact Liz Claiborne Inc. directly and with complete confidentiality.

Cooperative Efforts - Where practical and reasonable, Liz Claiborne Inc. works with problem contractors to help them meet our Standards. We believe it is a mistake to pull out at the first sign of trouble. Rather, we believe progress can be made by constructively engaging contractors.

Termination - If a contractor repeatedly fails to improve compliance with our standards, however, we will terminate the relationship.