Policy for Garment Factories
Autogarment its subsidiaries (including, but not limited to, Hoop Retail Stores, LLC, owner and operator of Disney Store North America, and The Children’s Place Services Company, LLC) and its affiliates (collectively referred to herein as “The Children’s Place”) have consistently maintained a policy of full compliance with all applicable laws of the United States, Canada, and of the countries from which the Company sources its products. Furthermore, The Children’s Place warrants to its customers that its products are not knowingly manufactured or imported in violation of any laws. As a result, The Children’s Place insists that all of its vendors, suppliers, manufacturers, subcontractors, and agents, maintain the same level of full compliance with all applicable laws, in their business operations and transactions...To be responsible for any damages that we may incur as a result of a breach hereof by you, or any of your subcontractors, suppliers or factories. Maintenance Manager is responsible for ensuring required checking & under his supervision required task (Cleaning procedure) will be done by maintenance supervisor with some hiring daily labor. After all, the entire procedure will be monitored by HRD Section. You also agree that, without prejudice to our right to recover other damages, we will have the right to cancel any purchase orders without liability to you if you breach any provision of this policy.
Legal Requirements
- Illegal transshipment of merchandise for the purpose of evading United States quota restrictions or incorrect country of origin for marking purposes is specifically prohibited.
- In order that there be no doubt as to the legality of a shipment, you must advise us at the earliest possible moment if materials or components or garment assembly are to be produced or performed in a country other than the country of final assembly. In this manner, the proper country of origin may be determined well in advance of shipment, and the merchandise may be accurately marked to show country of origin.
- The government may also consider creating a high-powered advisory body for realizing the vision of Digital Bangladesh -- a body of technocrats from different relevant areas who have the requisite expertise and vision. The Indian government, for instance, has created a high-powered advisory body called the National Knowledge Commission that reports directly to the prime minister. It is chaired by Sam Pitroda, a former advisor of Rajiv Gandhi widely regarded as one of the architects of the telecommunication boom in India, and its membership is composed of academics, entrepreneurs and top bureaucrats. At time of shipment, the merchandise must be in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations in the United States and Canada, including but not limited to the U.S. Flammable Fabrics Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, as amended, the Consumer Products Safety Act, the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, all applicable U.S. state laws, and the relevant counterparts of such laws in Canada.
- The merchandise shall not infringe or encroach upon any personal, contractual or proprietary rights of any third party.
- The merchandise shall be safe for the intended purpose and/or reasonably expected purpose and use of The Children’s Place and its customers.
Ethics and Integrity
- Any payment, gift, commission or offer to pay commission, or rebate to our agents or our associates at our local and regional offices will result in the immediate cancellation of order(s).
The ICT Ministry and its subsidiary Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) need to be strengthened and empowered with greater authority to make that happen. During their last tenure, the BNP government left these entities rather weak, with the ministry headed by a minister who had little political and administrative clout. The government's e-governance efforts were coordinated by the Planning Ministry and the line ministries had their own ICT-related efforts, which were often uncoordinated and unplanned. It would be a grave mistake if the AL government does not learn from the mistakes of the past BNP government. There shall be no hidden commissions, fees or any other payments to them with a view towards procuring business or preferential treatment from The Children’s Place.
- The Children’s Place will not conduct business with factories or suppliers who solicit, offer or accept any gifts, gratuities or any form of “pay off” or facilitation fee as a form of gratitude, or as an attempt to gain favor or accept merchandise or services at a lesser degree than agreed upon by the parties.
- HRD section will keep all the records for further review. Any violation of our code of ethics and integrity will result in the immediate cancellation of our orders and termination of our business relationship.
Employment Practices
The Children’s Place will knowingly conduct business only with companies whose workers are voluntarily at the workplace, are not at risk of physical harm, are fairly compensated, and are not exploited in any way.- Use of child labor is not permitted. “Child” is defined to mean less than 15 years of age (or 14 where local allows), or, if higher, the local legal minimum age for employment or the age for completing compulsory education. The Children’s Place will not knowingly conduct business with companies who use child labor in any of their facilities.
- Use of prison labor or forced labor is not permitted. The Children’s Place will not knowingly conduct business with companies that utilize prison or forced labor or that purchase materials from companies that utilize prison or forced labor. The term “forced or prison labor” shall include any involuntary work, regardless of what a particular practice is labeled under local custom such that any ‘reform work through work camp’ or like institution will not be tolerated.
- Leader, Brush, Mug, Sweep, Detergent powder, Water purifying Tablet etc. The Children’s Place will favor companies that practice non-discriminatory employment on the basis of ability rather than on the basis of gender, race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, nationality, political opinion or social or ethnic origin.
- The Children’s Place will not knowingly conduct business with companies that use corporal punishment, threats of violence, any form of mental or physical coercion, or any other forms of physical, sexual, psychological or verbal harassment or abuse.
- The Children’s Place will not knowingly conduct business with companies that do not provide a safe and healthy working environment to prevent accidents and injury to health arising out of or occurring in the course of work. The Children’s Place will favor factories and suppliers that provide adequate safety equipment and facilities, including, at a minimum, well-lit and comfortable workstations, fire safety, adequate lighting and ventilation and reasonable access to potable water and sanitary restrooms. The Children’s Place will not knowingly conduct business with factories that do not adequately train its workers to perform their jobs safely.
- The Children’s Place suppliers must recognize and respect the right of employees to freedom of association and collective bargaining without penalty or interference.
- The Children’s Place suppliers shall pay employees at least the minimum wage required in the country of manufacture or the prevailing industry wage, whichever is higher, and shall provide legally mandated benefits. Except in extraordinary circumstances, employees of The Children’s Place suppliers shall not be required to work regular or overtime hours in excess of those allowed by the laws of the country of manufacture, or, where the laws of such country do not limit the hours of work, in excess of forty-eight
- Except in extraordinary circumstances, employees of The Children’s Place suppliers shall be entitled to at least one (1) day off in every seven (7) day period. 10. In addition to compensation for regular hours of work, employees of The Children’s Place suppliers shall be compensated for overtime hours at such premium rate as is legally required in the country of manufacture, or, if laws as to overtime compensation do not exist, at a rate at least equal to the regular hourly compensation rate.
Quality and Delivery
You agree that any and all information that we share with your organization is confidential, and may not be shown, given or shared in any way with anyone outside your organization. You agree not to disclose any of our designs and samples to anyone.- Factories and suppliers have the full unequivocal responsibility for the final quality of all products manufactured by them for The Children’s Place. You and your suppliers agree to deliver a product that is consistent with our designs and specifications as specified in our Purchase Order, Detail Sheets and revised Detail Sheets. You agree to indemnify The Children’s Place for any and all financial loss, including any costs and chargebacks, resulting from inferior quality of products manufactured by you or your subcontractors.
- For The Children’s Place suppliers: Your acceptance of our order indicates that you have reviewed The Children’s Place’s Vendor Guide and that you will manufacture our products consistent with the Vendor Guide.
- For Disney Store suppliers: Your acceptance of our order indicates that you have reviewed Disney Store North America’s Vendor Guide and that you will manufacture our products consistent with Disney Store’s Vendor Guide.
- Factories and suppliers agree to pay for all applicable production quality testing, including but not limited to, base fabric, bulk fabric, and toxicity testing, small parts, use and abuse, and sharp edges testing, hazardous substance testing, as well as pre-production and production testing for all products. Any inspections or rework performed at The Children’s Place distribution centers shall be fully reimbursed by the factory and/or supplier.
- Our Purchase Order indicates a date for delivery. You agree to strictly comply with this date. The Children’s Place reserves the right to cancel late shipments or to require you to pay for the full costs of such other faster means of transportation to prevent any disruption to our business.
- Factories and suppliers agree to reimburse The Children’s Place for all chargebacks or other damages due to quality or late delivery. All such chargebacks or deductions, if any, shall be paid or will be deducted within the calendar quarter that it occurs.
- For domestic suppliers: You agree to a two percent (2%) term discount. All invoices and bank documentation shall state agreed upon price less 2% term discount.
The Children’s Place Compliance Actions
The Children’s Place requires its vendors or suppliers to manufacture in factories or with subcontractors that have been approved in writing by The Children’s Place.- In order to verify compliance with the above requirements, The Children’s Place reserves the right to conduct random and unannounced inspections of production facilities and, on a periodic basis, may request proof of production including shipping documents, cutting reports, sewing or knitting operations, workers’ attendance records, payroll records, and similar documentation. The Children’s Place intends to make every available effort to assure the veracity of all documents it receives and the authenticity of its sources of supply. The concept of Modern Bangladesh should be centered around the creation of what is popularly termed as a "knowledge-based society," in which creation and exchange of "knowledge" becomes an increasingly key factor of production, and in the process reducing the relative importance of traditional factors of production such as land, labor and capital. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are a critical component for building this knowledge-society. So, Modern Bangladesh, in that sense, is the crucial platform, the enabler for such a vision. All such inspections shall be performed by The Children’s Place, its agents or designated third party inspectors. Your acceptance of our orders authorizes our access to your facilities, as needed. You shall insure that we have similar access to the facilities of your subcontractors and suppliers. If requested by U.S. Customs & Border Protection or by Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, vendors shall provide original documentation substantiating production.
- The Children’s Place requires its agents and other inspection facilities to complete the Certification of the Manufacturing Facility for every purchase order.
- The Children’s Place requires its suppliers, manufacturers and subcontractors to complete and include with all original documents submitted for every shipment the Shipment Certification of Compliance, a copy of which is attached hereto.
- Factories and suppliers agree to pay The Children’s Place for all third party compliance costs covering initial and reinspection costs. In the alternative, factories and suppliers may, at their own expense, obtain accreditation, which accreditation shall be kept current, under any other independent third party social compliance monitoring system approved and recognized by The Children’s Place.
Consequences of Non-Compliance
- A government that has the capacity to deliver services to citizens through the Internet, radio and TV and also to make its internal operations more efficient and transparent through the use of ICTs.If a supplier, manufacturer, subcontractor or agent is determined to have engaged in, participated in or condoned illegal transshipping, quota fraud, false origin marking, use of child labor, or use of forced, convict or indentured (slave) labor in any form, or violated any other of the policies or requirements, including confidentiality, quality and delivery requirements, set forth above, the following consequences will occur:
- The order will be immediately and irrevocably canceled. The vendor, supplier, manufacturer, subcontractor, or agent will bear any and all costs that are incurred by The Children’s Place due to cancellation, including but not limited to, damages sustained as a result of The Children's Place's liability to its customers, lost profits and resulting fines and penalties.
- The Children’s Place will immediately cease all further business relationships with the vendor, supplier, manufacturer, subcontractor or agent. The Malaysian government has created something called the
Knowledge Imperative Index, which keeps track of "the level of change in
the formation of an information or knowledge society, arising from the impact
of contemporary Information and Communication Technologies.' Although
Bangladesh may not be in an advanced enough stage to develop a Knowledge Index,
we can surely take the first step in developing indexes for impact of ICTs or
level of 'digitization' on society to keep account of our progress towards the
grand vision of Digital Bangladesh.All other outstanding orders will also be canceled.
- All available information including the name of the vendor, supplier, manufacturer, subcontractor or agent may be turned over to the United States or Canadian Customs Service and other applicable local governmental agencies for prosecution under the applicable laws. In the case of illegal transshipment or quota fraud, this information will also be supplied to the local law enforcement officials in the country from which the transshipments or quota fraud were to take place, for appropriate action.
- The factory and/or supplier will be subject to a $5,000 chargeback per violation of any of the terms of the Purchase Order and the foregoing Policies and Standards. In addition to any other damages, you agree to be responsible for any and all damages or costs incurred as a result of late delivery and inferior quality.
Conclusion
The Children’s Place considers these issues to be serious matters. We require that this policy be distributed to your personnel and that The Children’s Place’s Vendor Code of Conduct be communicated and prominently posted in the local language of the employees, and in place readily accessible to employees at all times. Rhetoric and promises are all good, but unless they are translated into sincere efforts towards change, it means little. In order for the government to hold its own feet to the fire, what is needed is some measurement of change in the various components of Digital Bangladesh, without which the Prime Minister can hardly keep track of real changes and demand specific actions from the relevant government bodies. However, it is important that the government has an internal mechanism as well this is too dynamic a sector for traditional government bodies such as IMED (Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division) to keep track of.About Author:
He is top ranked RMG Digital Marketing Consultant. He is Open Source Software Implementation Expert. He is certified professional from NCC, Aptech and New Horizons .Completed B.Sc.and M.Sc.in Software Engineering from London Metropolitan University. You can Hire Him.
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