Human rights
The people who make our products
We do not own factories. That does not make what happens in them somebody else’s responsibility. This page sets out what we require, what we check, and what we cannot yet see.
Our commitment
Femieko respects internationally recognised human rights across our own operations and our value chain. We take our reference from the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
In practice that means we require the following of every manufacturer and supplier who works on our products, and we say so in writing before we place an order.
- No forced labour, bonded labour or prison labour, in any form
- No child labour, and protection for young workers above the legal minimum age
- Freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively
- Working hours and pay that meet or exceed the law of the country of production
- Safe and healthy working conditions
- No discrimination and no harassment
- No recruitment fees charged to workers, which is the most common route into debt bondage for migrant workers
- The right of any worker to raise a concern with us directly, without going through their employer
Where the real risks are
Naming risks is not an admission that they have occurred. It is how you decide where to look. For a company that makes textile and silicone products through third-party manufacturers, these are the areas we consider highest risk.
Excessive working hours
Textile production runs on seasonal peaks. Overtime becomes normal, then compulsory. This is the most common and most under-reported issue in our category.
Migrant workers and recruitment fees
Where a workforce includes migrant workers, fees charged during recruitment can leave a person effectively unable to leave a job. We treat any recruitment fee charged to a worker as a red line.
The origin of cotton
Organic cotton is central to our range. Cotton is also a raw material where forced labour has been documented in particular growing regions. Certification tells us about the growing method. It does not by itself tell us everything about the labour conditions, which is why origin matters to us as well.
Chemical safety for the people who make the product
The substances used in textile finishing affect the workers handling them long before they affect anyone wearing the product. Our chemical work is described on our impact page, and it is a worker safety question as much as a consumer one.
Visibility below the first tier
We know the factories that make our products. We have far less visibility of the mills, dye houses and component suppliers behind them. This is the honest limit of what we can currently see.
What we do about it
- We work with audited manufacturers. Our partners comply with labour law and ethical standards in the countries where production takes place. Social auditing standards including BSCI and Sedex apply across parts of our supply base, and the certifications held for each product family are listed on our certifications pages.
- We put the requirements in writing. Suppliers receive our conduct requirements, and we ask for signed confirmation rather than assuming.
- We keep traceability. Every Femieko product can be traced through its batch number, which means a question about a specific product leads back to a specific production run.
- We keep the reporting route open to everyone. A worker at a supplier can write to us directly and anonymously through our concerns procedure. They do not need to go through their employer to reach us.
- We support work on inclusion where we can. We back specific initiatives that create job opportunities for people from vulnerable groups.
What we do not yet do
We are a company of around ten people. Some things that a large brand would have, we do not have yet, and pretending otherwise would be the opposite of the point of this page.
- We do not publish a full map of our suppliers. We are building one, starting with the factories that assemble our products.
- We do not commission our own social audits. We rely on the audit schemes our manufacturers are already part of, which is normal at our size and is not the same thing as auditing them ourselves.
- We do not yet trace raw materials to the farm or the mill for every product line.
- We have not carried out a formal human rights impact assessment. What is written above is a reasoned view of our risks, not an independent study.
If you work in this field and think we have the risks wrong, we would genuinely like to hear it. hello@femieko.com
