Many consumers often want to know basic facts about Liz Claiborne Inc.'s efforts to ensure that its products are made under decent and fair working conditions. Below, please find some of the most commonly asked questions followed by our answers:

Do workers who manufacture Liz Claiborne Inc.'s products know their rights?

Educating workers about their rights is essential-the better they understand their rights, the easier they will find it to speak up to defend them. That's why suppliers must post our Standards of Engagement in workers' native languages. This strict set of standards prohibits child labor, forced labor and all forms of harassment or abuse, in addition to ensuring workers are all paid the minimum wage, setting limits on overtime hours and requiring employers to honor workers' rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

And that's why we are also reaching out to on-the-ground human rights groups and other local organizations to support the education process. Because these groups know the local languages and cultures, they will be able to help us make sure workers understand their rights.

How does Liz Claiborne Inc. enforce its Standards of Engagement?

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 use a wide variety of enforcement mechanisms, including the following:

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. 

What other steps has Liz Claiborne Inc. taken to address the sweatshop issue?

Liz Claiborne Inc. has been an industry leader in the effort to improve working conditions. Our general counsel served as co-chair of the Apparel Industry Partnership, a White House-sponsored task force which was composed of leading apparel and footwear companies, consumer advocates, religious organizations, labor and human rights groups.

In May 2005 the FLA accredited Liz Claiborne Inc.'s compliance program, along with those of five other member companies. This followed an extensive performance review based upon independent factory monitoring and verification reports of supplier facilities conducted by accredited external monitors and a thorough audit of the required monitoring protocols, training programs and auditing systems in their programs. In June 2008, LCI was reaccredited. Independent monitors' audit findings are posted on the FLA website as well as the FLA's report on our compliance at www.fairlabor.org.

Endnote:
It's important to us - and we know that it's important to you - that our products are manufactured in a safe and humane environment. Your helpful suggestions would be appreciated. Click here to propose an idea or obtain more information