We proactively reach out to workers, our allies who assist us in finding workplace problems and fixing them. We aim to empower workers to participate in decisions that affect their lives. A workplace where workers understand their rights and responsibilities leads to greater transparency about conditions.

In 1997, we introduced our first Worker Communication System to provide a secure channel for workers to report areas of noncompliance with our Standards directly to us. In 2003, we began to refer issues reported by workers to appointed workers’ representatives and encouraged them to resolve issues directly with factory management. In these factories, management agreed to post the reported concerns and actions taken to address them on a notice board.

Reebok has been an industry leader in respecting freedom of association among workers. We hope that by establishing worker representation and communications systems, factory management will engage with workers to improve standards without our involvement.

We’ve experimented with transparent elections for worker representatives by applying the principles of proportional representation, one-person one vote and self-nomination. With properly elected representatives, workers can take a more active role in protecting their own rights.

We also help establish democratically elected communications committees or forums for workers to meet regularly with management. These committees enable greater worker participation in factory management decisions.

We have seen signs of success. In Indonesia, for example, we facilitated elections some years ago and elections now take place regularly.

For a stakeholder dialogue on Reebok & NGO experiences to date and ideas for enabling workers to participate in protecting their own rights, read the ESSAY: FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION