Human Rights and Responsible Sourcing

 

We are Committed to Human Rights and Responsible Sourcing

HanesBrands’ commitment to our guiding principles means that we only do business with suppliers who also abide by the highest standards of ethical business behavior.  

Reviewed and updated annually, our Global Standards for Suppliers (GSS) and our Global Human Rights Policy call for all our suppliers to conduct themselves with honesty and integrity and to fully comply with the law and HanesBrands policies. Our GSS applies to all facilities involved in the production of HanesBrands products anywhere in the world including our owned facilities.  

All finished goods facilities must undergo a GSS assessment before production begins. It is then followed up with ongoing annual assessments. To ensure accuracy and integrity, the initial and annual assessments are conducted by third-party auditors who measure the facilities’ performance using a detailed, scored set of more than 265 questions across five key areas:

  1. Management Practices 
  2. Health, Safety & Social 
  3. Responsible Labor 
  4. Environmental Practices 
  5. Security 

Please see here for our detailed audit scorecard.

Based on their audit score, we grade and rank our suppliers into four categories. The lowest-scoring facilities are placed on our Alarm List for flagged issues that need immediate action. We have a zero-tolerance policy against issues such as child labor, forced labor, wage violations, serious health and safety violations (especially fire safety), sexual or physical harassment or abuse, rejection of an audit, unauthorized subcontracting and attempted bribery of an auditor. These may lead to us immediately terminating our business relationship. We refused to initially enter or terminated our relationship with 56 facilities in 2022.

We have a zero tolerance policy against issues such as child labor, forced labor wage violations, serious health and safety violations and sexual or physical harassment or abuse.

Embedded within our regional operations are over a dozen dedicated compliance staff who ensure strong oversight of the GSS program and the corrective action process. To support the entire GSS process, we use a sophisticated centralized software tool, our Global Vendor Management System (GVMS), which tracks and manages all supplier audit data and the corrective action process. Please see our Transparency section for further details on our audit process and data captured in our GVMS system. See also our GSS Vendor Manual attached here for more information on our auditing and corrective action process.

Many stakeholders are interested in our position on wages – in particular on whether we support a “living wage.” In short, we believe in fairly compensating our workforce so that they live in households that more than meet their basic needs – and have discretionary income.

We are also pleased to be (since 2009) a fully accredited participating company in the Fair Labor Association (FLA), an internationally recognized multi-stakeholder labor rights organization, having been reaccredited in October 2019. Please go to www.fairlabor.org to learn more about the FLA and click here to see the detailed FLA Assessment for reaccreditation.

In the spirit of greater transparency into our human rights and responsible sourcing program, we have also participated in the Global Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) survey since 2017.

Please see here for our CHRB survey responses which provide even more details on our program.

Also, see here the disclosure of the locations of our owned facilities, finished goods suppliers, and suppliers producing for our collegiate business.

Two women sewing in a HanesBrands facility
HanesBrands Bangkok employees
Fair Labor Association logo

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Global Ethics and Compliance

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Our Associates

A man and woman laughing

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

HanesBrands interns in front of the HBI corporate office

Global Ethics and Compliance

Community Engagement and Philanthropy