City Chic has outlined a strengthened approach to modern slavery risk management, including a more diligent tracing program and a commitment to ethical trade practices. The company seeks to ensure its supply chain does not source directly or indirectly from known regions that openly engage in the use of forced labour, in line with its responsibilities under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Material actions and disclosures
The company has identified cotton production, right back to farming, as a high-risk issue and is taking steps to better understand and address it. New suppliers are onboarded into the Ethical Trade Program, and factories are audited to assign risk ratings, helping prioritise corrective actions. The audit program is one part of the vendor onboarding process and sits alongside other ethical trade initiatives.
City Chic also conducts worker surveys alongside factory social audits and maintains a worker hotline and grievance mechanisms to empower workers to have a voice about their individual working conditions. The company recognises that a minimum wage does not always equal a living wage and is committed to closing the gap between living wage and minimum wage through multi-stakeholder initiatives and global benchmarking.
Forward commitments
City Chic aims to continue improving its supply chain transparency and tracing of high-risk products, regions, or raw materials to manage risks related to modern slavery and ensure compliance across all regulatory requirements in the markets it operates in.
The company also plans to develop a living wage tracker to record factories that are paying living wages, on track to paying living wages, or paying minimum wages (but not equal to living wages). This tracker will help monitor progress and ensure all factories are moving towards paying a living wage.
City Chic continues to engage with key NGOs and maintain its chain of custody policy and process for all tiers of the product sourcing supply chain.
These actions and commitments reflect City Chic’s ongoing efforts to improve the lives of workers in its supply chain and ensure safe and respectful working environments for all workers.