Ronhill was first awarded ‘Leader Status’ by Fair Wear Foundation in 2016 and has been awarded their highest accolade for performance every year since.
Fair Wear Foundation is an independent, non-profit, multi-stakeholder organisation that works with brands and producers to improve labour conditions in the garment industry worldwide. Fair Wear has over 144 member brands with representation in 11 production countries in Asia, Europe and Africa, and keeps detailed track of progress made by all the partners it works with. Together with Fair Wear, Ronhill is working to achieve fair working conditions worldwide. Ronhill has been a member of Fair Wear since 2012 and has developed a close partnership with Fair Wear, working together with them continuously over the past 10 years.
"Ronhill maintained its leader status over the past years. The company has strong systems to enable human rights due diligence and actively works on high-risk areas in its supply chain. In 2021, OSC showed good practice in their work on Freedom of Association and the right to collective bargaining, which the brand identified as a high risk for China and Vietnam” – Julia Kramer, Brand Liaison, Fair Wear Foundation
To reach Leader status, Ronhill achieved a monitoring percentage of 78 in the Fair Wear Brand Performance Check for 2020. In these annual reviews, Fair Wear verifies member brands regarding their progress in implementing labour standards and improving working conditions.
As a member of Fair Wear, Ronhill is committed to implementing the strict 8-point Fair Wear Code of Labour Practices, which is based on UN and ILO principles, in all production facilities and so meets the highest standards for socially equitable working conditions. These include, among others, the payment of living wages, reasonable working hours, safe and healthy working conditions, prevention of child labour and many more.
“We have been working hard for the last 10 years to ensure the working conditions in the production facilities we use meet acceptable welfare standards. Being recognised by Fair Wear as a leading brand in this respect is greatly rewarding and helps to encourage us to continue in this important and challenging work” says Kevin Offer, CSR Manager OSC Ltd.
In regularly scheduled audits, Fair Wear monitors working conditions and social standards in individual production facilities and then follows up to see how successful they have been at making changes. The audit teams make their assessment through offsite and onsite interviews with workers, document inspections and health and safety inspections. They then share their findings and recommendations for improvement with the brand and factory management. The brand and factory management create a concrete action plan with a clear timeframe, keeping in mind that it may not be possible to solve every issue at once. It’s then up to the brand and the factory to work together to resolve the issues.