VF, in collaboration with Quizrr, and supported by Better Work is excited to launch F.A.I.R Dialogue Program (Freedom of Association and Industrial Relations) which focuses on the key principles of Freedom of Association (FOA), Collective Bargaining (CB), Industrial Relations (IR), Social Dialogue (SD), and Grievance Mechanism (GM)

VF is elevating its focus on worker rights, putting FOA, CB, IR, SD, and GM at the center of its strategic effort. A key outcome of this focus has been to engage in a strategic partnership with Better Work on the above topics with an overarching goal: 

“Workers in VF’s supply chain are aware of their rights and responsibilities to enable effective social dialogue and trust the grievance mechanism in their workplace.” and 

“Freely elected worker representation, incl. bi-partite committees, and unions will have a proportional representation of women” 

VF is looking to address the need to improve workplace social dialogue and industrial relations in countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mexico, El Salvador, and others by expanding the scope beyond factory leadership. This means including all employees and workers at the factories in the training and further learning process. 

A blended learning approach 

A management-worker task force from each facility will be trained and equipped on the key concepts of FOA, CB, IR, SD, and GM together with facilitation skills and practice sessions. This task force will become each factory implementation team to facilitate in-person sessions with supervisors and workers to ensure successful implementation in factories when addressing these complex topics. A key focus is to deliver awareness training to the whole workforce on understanding their rights, roles & responsibilities on the above topics, and to support the constructive use of the participating committees and worker/union representatives. This means engaging workers across the entire workplace not just for management and committee members and/or union representatives. 

VF has partnered with Better Work for face-to-face interactive training, and with Quizrr for an expanded scope to include training to all supervisors and workers through a digital solution delivered on tablets, smartphones, or laptops. This allows the participating suppliers to assess, monitor, and evaluate if knowledge gaps are addressed, closed, and information retained with the employees via a live online Quizrr dashboard. 

Key supplier partners will show commitment to VF’s requirements and VF Facility Compliance Standards. With the increased focus on FOA, workplace IR & SD, and a functioning workplace GM, VF offers support for our key suppliers globally with the objectives:  

• To bring an alignment between VF’s goals and our suppliers’ goals on FOA  
• To support suppliers on how to comply with VF’s new Facility Compliance Standards  
• To address common FOA issues and violations in the supply chain 
• To raise awareness and capacity building of employers and workers on FOA 
• To promote harmonized culture and mutual understanding in workplaces 
• To be ready and be proactive on this topic 

Benefits for suppliers  

• Increase awareness raising on FOA, SD, IR, and GM in the workplace 
• Promote harmonized culture and mutual understanding in workplaces 
• Ensure that management and workers respect each other, understand their rights, and understand each party's roles and responsibilities 
• Understand on how to comply with VF’s new Facility Compliance Standards 
• Gain competitive advantages by implementing a leading industry practice 
• A new approach with digital tools: access to the dashboard to track training, performance, and results 
• Opportunity to share achievements with other brand partners 
• Continuous training for new employees and refresher training 

Contact – Sokunthea Seng, Worker Rights Program Manager VF Corporation

Contact – Sohan Rahman, Regional Project Manager, Bangladesh

Contact – May Li, Regional Project Manager, Cambodia