Our human rights field staff, establish and maintain relationships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in their region. We not only value their input, but also seek their partnership in developing local and unique solutions for improving worker rights. NGOs represent civil society and have been primary advocates for improving worker rights. In our efforts to protect workers, wherever possible we seek their hands-on involvement, to gain their insight on the frontlines of human rights, as well as to understand local voices on labor conditions and problems at specific factories. As respected third-party entities, NGOs are often able to facilitate meaningful dialogue and to provide expert advice on difficult issues. Because a long-term worker-management relationship based on trust will be more beneficial than an issue-by-issue crisis management approach driven by brands, we often turn to NGO representatives who have the trust of workers to suggest mutually acceptable local solutions with our global manufacturing partners.

This section describes two examples of Reebok’s partnerships with local NGOs to resolve problems at factories in Honduras and Bangladesh. Each of the partnerships is described first in the words of the NGO and then by our local field staff. Reebok compensated both of the NGOs for their time, but as you will note from their frank summaries, we do not believe that this in any way compromised their independence or objectivity.

WORKING WITH A CENTRAL AMERICAN NGO TO INVESTIGATE WORKPLACE ALLEGATIONS
We collaborated with Coverco, a Guatemalan-based NGO involved in independent factory monitoring, to investigate allegations of serious violations of Reebok’s Standards at a factory making our products in Honduras. This is Coverco’s description of the engagement:

“Coverco has been in communication with Reebok on working conditions in garment factories for more than four years. We agreed to carry out an inspection over two months for Reebok because we want to share our experience and expertise as an NGO and we recognize Reebok’s desire to develop their human rights policies.

Our role was to provide independent verification of the level of labor rights compliance in a factory in response to international allegations of several serious violations. We also worked to improve social compliance policies at the factory. We found evidence to confirm several of the allegations. The allegations gave a good indication of the level of compliance at the factory even before our inspection began and we feel Reebok could have responded quicker to the problems we discovered, as those allegations were already of their knowledge.

We found the collaboration to be a positive experience. Reebok was receptive to our verification methodology and communicated the objectives and desired results well. They also had faith in Coverco’s ability to carry out the inspection, despite the factory’s initial rejection of our presence there.

This was an important collaboration between a civil organization and a business and we were both able to learn from each other’s methodology and inspection criteria. The information we provided will help Reebok develop their social responsibility policy.”

– Homero Fuentes, Executive Director, Coverco

For more information on Coverco, see
www.coverco.com

And here the partnership is described by Reebok’s human rights program manager in the Americas:

“We are always looking for credible worker advocate organizations to communicate with as they can often be the “missing link” between factory management and workers. They have very good knowledge of the regions we source from and can be an excellent source of information too.

While we don’t always share the same objectives as these organizations, we all want to make a difference in the lives of workers.

We chose to work with Coverco as they are well respected in the region and they have done inspections for other big brands in the past.

Looking back, it was difficult initially to get the factory on board. This made cultural differences, differences in communication protocols and business practices even more difficult to manage. The collaboration was imposed on factory management and we had to work even harder to demonstrate the benefits to management. In the end, together we succeeded in bringing about and maintaining a collaboration between factory management and the NGO. This sends a message to other doubting organizations and companies that a relationship like this can work. Coverco gave another perspective to our business practices, which helps us move further towards our human rights goals. They also gave additional credibility and transparency to our monitoring programs.”

– Franklin Chavarria, Manager
Reebok Human Rights Programs, Americas

WORKER COMMUNICATIONS PROJECT WITH BANGLADESH NGO
Reebok is working with Phulki, a Bangladeshi NGO dedicated to the rights of women and children, to improve communication with workers in Bangladesh. This is their description of the engagement:

“We decided to work with Reebok staff on this project because they recognize the importance of worker participation in dispute resolution. This is an innovative project and cooperation is essential. Since Reebok is already open to change there is more chance that the project will be successful. Reebok is a significant employer in the garment industry. If one key employer is seen improving worker representation then others are likely to follow suit.

Our role is to gain the workers’ trust so that they feel comfortable speaking about problems in the workplace. This is important, as many employees are hesitant to voice concerns for fear that they will be punished or even lose their jobs. We also work closely with management so we can become mediators between management and workers and improve communication.

The project is still at the initial stage so it is difficult to assess the achievements. There have been challenges in working with Reebok. At times communication between Reebok and Phulki has been too slow. Action must be fast and effective or we risk losing the confidence of workers. We would also like a greater role in implementing the worker representation projects. We feel responsible for making sure that workers’ confidence in us is not betrayed. But because Phulki is not a part of the conflict/complaint resolution team we are unable to guarantee that action is taken.”

– Suraiya Haque, Executive Director, Phulki
For more information on Phulki, see www.phulki.com