Corporate Social Responsibility
“We strive to source product in a responsible manner by operating a transparent supply chain while delivering quality, on-time product with a vendor base aligned to support our product procurement.
By being open and transparent about our partnerships and by giving our customers visibility on our ethical sourcing policies, it allows our customer to make more informed purchasing decisions
”
City Chic Collective (CCX) is committed to supplying our customers the highest quality product at the best possible price in the quickest possible time. We are committed to ensuring working conditions are suitable in our partner factories and are endeavoring to develop long term relationships with our suppliers. We believe in sharing our technical expertise with our supply partners and investing for the future. Better working conditions improve the efficiency of our supply chain. Fairly paid and treated workers that operate in a healthy and safe environment are more productive, and in turn deliver a higher standard of quality of product.
ethical trade
“We have zero tolerance of the use of any child labour, forced labour or prison labour in the manufacturing of our garments
”
In 2014 we implemented our Vendor Code of Conduct which sets out CCX’s policies regarding the social, environmental and standard of compliance that we require from our business partners.
We are committed to monitor and audit against this code, providing training and communication of our key initiatives.
We insist that all our partner suppliers and factories guarantee on behalf of their workers:
the right to rest and leisure;
the right to an adequate and safe standard of living in provided accommodation (if required);
the right to training to perform required tasks within the workplace;
the right to participate in the community;
a safe and healthy workplace;
the right to work, equal pay and the right to join a trade union if desired or available;
the right to collective bargaining; and
the right to refuse any dangerous or unsafe work.
We expect all factories and suppliers to fairly compensate their employees by providing wages, benefits and reasonable work hours that are consistent with local laws and standards.
Our social policies include but are not restricted to:
freedom from discrimination;
freedom from slavery or servitude;
freedom of movement;
freedom of expression;
freedom of thought; and
freedom from invasive body searches or unwanted pregnancy testing.
OUR RESPONSIBLE SOURCING POLICIES
“We pledge that all our product is safe to make, safe to wear (or use) and safe for the environment”
1. We pledge to ban the use of any cotton originating from Uzbekistan due to the known use of child labour.
2. We have banned the use of sandblasting in our denim manufacturing which protects workers from the ingestion of harsh contaminated fumes.
3. We have a full ban on the use of Fur on any product. We also ban the use of angora fibre, as angora farming practices have proven to be inhumane. We strive to ensure no animal cruelty is suffered through our manufacturing process.
4. We have a tracing process in place to establish the chain of custody on all Australian Cotton, Merino Wool, and Duck feather down (or feather lined) products to ensure sustainable farming practices are in place.
Modern Slavery Act
We have welcomed the introduction to Australian legislation in passing the Modern Slavery Bill.
Modern Slavery would constitute:
• Any offence under Division 270 or 271 of Criminal code
o including Slavery offences, sexual servitude offences, trafficking in persons offences, forced, labour, deceptive recruitment, debt bondage, organ trafficking
• Trafficking in Persons as Defined in Article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking Persons (UN convention ATS27)
• The worst forms of Child Labour as Defined in Article 3 of ILO Convention (no.82)
Our approach to modern slavery is to ensure we have well documented polices in place, robust communication and training to all our teams and factories, quality risk assessment programs, due diligence & remediation processes and an overall focus on transparency in our supply chain.
Through mapping our operations and supply chain, and by tracing all tiers (from factory to farm), we are on the path to identifying any risk of modern slavery practices that could be present within the supply chain.
With key stakeholder engagement (including NGO’s) we continue to build our social audit frameworks to ensure robust systems are in place to help find and remediate any potential risks.
Gender Equality
“Providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large”
We promote Gender Equality and equal opportunity for women in our Supply chain by aligning to the Sustainable Development Goal #5. We have open dialogue with our partners to provide awareness and training in achieving gender equality, along with tracking progress within our social audit framework.
LIVING WAGE
“Working with factories to recognize that a minimum wage does not always equal a living wage…”
We commit to closing the gap between living wage and minimum wage.
We recognise that multi stakeholder initiatives are the best way to drive change and we look to global benchmarking to help determine a basic living wage by region.
Whilst no single global formula to calculate living wage is in place, we do adopt the benchmarks set out by the Anker method and follow the guidance of Global Living Wage Coalition. Where the Anker methodology is not available, we adopt the benchmark from a similar region in the same country. We also reference WageIndicator.org as an additional resource.
The Global Living Wage Coalition defines a Living Wage as…
“The remuneration received for a standard workweek by a worker in a particular place sufficient to afford a decent standard of living for the worker and her or his family. Elements of a decent standard of living include food, water, housing, education, health care, transportation, clothing, and other essential needs including provision for unexpected events.”
Please see our progress on our Living Wage Statement published below.
Worker Voice
Empowering our workers in all our factories to have a voice has been a focus for us since the introduction Grievance hotlines and worker interviews.
We require all factories to establish worker appointed safety committees and with the next phase being the roll out of independent worker surveys.
The aim of the surveys will be to gain direct worker feedback about their roles, their working environment and their well-being.
PRODUCT SAFETY PROMISE
“We not only think it is our responsibility to keep our products and customers safe, we promise to do so”
CCX promises to deliver safe products to our customers. We ensure that within the manufacturing process, no worker’s safety is at risk. We have implemented and mandated a restricted chemicals list along with enforcing bans on any chemicals that could pose as a risk to either the workers handling the product or the end customer. In 2014 we enhanced our policy on the ban of AZO dyes whereby we now require all our suppliers to provide certification that their supply chain is AZO dye-free. In order to protect our customers and supply partners from any product harm or danger, we have implemented a fabric and garment testing program for banned chemicals.
In 2018 we have made it a requirement of all our fabric and trim mills to sign up to Oeko-Tek 100 standard and certification.
Transparent supply chain
“With strong partnerships and collaboration - together we can drive change”
In order to ensure quality and compliance of standards, we regularly conduct factory evaluation visits and conduct pre-production, inline and final inspections of product (either by CCX personnel or an appointed agent). CCX is authorised to access all our manufacturing facilities as required. We require full disclosure from all vendors of all their manufacturing plants and subcontractors for audit approval. We have introduced a third party independent auditing committee to conduct audits in addition to the internal audits we conduct ourselves.
We check the quality and compliance of factories by inspecting both the technical and social accountabilities of our vendors. We also monitor that workers are fairly paid and working hours adhere to the local laws.
Our Transparency and traceability initiatives go towards building capacity to dive deeper into our supply chain to support all our human right and anti-Slavery policies.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN
“REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE is our commitment to the environment, both locally and offshore”
We require all factories to have a strict adherence to waste management procedures and that the disposal of waste is not harmful to the environment. We encourage processes that reduce water consumption. As part of our audit process we require that no toxic or harmful chemicals are dumped into the environment.
All factories must comply with both our Restricted Substance List (RSL) and our Manufacturing Restricted Substance List (MRSL) in which we audit and conduct testing to ensure compliance.
In order to supply our brand, all factories must register to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and must gain certification.
The Environmental Impact Assessment is assessing the environmental impacts during operations, including solid wastes, hazardous wastes, waste water, air emissions and noise. Our 3rd party audit will also review progress and continued compliance to standards set in the EIA.
We constantly review our packaging methods for all goods in order to reduce the use of polybags and cartons. We are currently developing an initiative to further reduce the number of plastic bags in our supply chain.
CCX insists on a standardised carton size which gives us efficient container loads and allows our warehouses to reuse cartons. We have re-engineered our carton markings to enable CCX to reuse cartons from origin and to deliver product directly to store without the need to repack goods.
animal welfare
“We insist no product is made from or uses Real Fur, Angora, Mohair or Cashmere”
Should any products contain components derived from animals, we insist that all animals should be afforded:
Freedom from hunger and thirst;
Freedom from discomfort;
Freedom from pain, injury and disease;
Freedom to express normal behaviour;
Freedom from fear and distress.
ANGORA / MOHAIR / CASHMERE BAN
CCX insist on the boycott of the use of Angora / Mohair and Cashmere. We require no vendor uses Angora / Mohair and Cashmere Yarn in the production of any goods. Our vendor must also ensure that recycled yarns (mainly used in boucle / tweeds or textured woven fabrics) do not contain any of these yarn within their content.
REAL FUR BAN
CCX ban the use of real fur. We require that no vendor uses real fur in any production of goods. This includes in trims or accessories.
REAL SKINS BAN
CCX does not accept skin from endangered or vulnerable species to be used in any product.
AUSTRALIAN MERINO WOOL
We ask that no vendor engages or purchases for production of any goods Australian Merino wool from farms where mulesing is practised. Only bales of wool with a Non Mulesing (NM) or Ceased Mulesing (CM) status should be purchased for production of CCX goods. Our vendor must produce an AWTA ITWO combined certificate including the mulesing status for the wool batches purchased for production of CCX goods. Vendor should also demonstrate how the bales of wool purchased for CCX goods are traceable throughout the production process to ensure the integrity of CCX goods.
FEATHERS & DOWN POLICY
If the goods you supply to CCX contain feathers or down, you must ensure that:
The feathers or down should be a by-product of birds raised for their meat;
Animal welfare and husbandry should follow local guidelines or if there are no local guidelines the International Finance Corp (IFC) guidelines for Animal Welfare should be followed; and
There are NO live plucking or force feeding practices.