WARNACO Business Partner Terms of Engagement and Guidelines for Country Selection

United States Department of Labour

Guidelines for Country Selection

1. BRAND IMAGE

We will not initiate or renew contractual relationships in countries where sourcing would have an adverse effect on our global brand image.

2. HEALTH & SAFETY

We will not initiate or renew contractual relationships in locations where there is evidence that company employees or representatives would be exposed to unreasonable risk.

3. HUMAN RIGHTS

We will not initiate or renew contractual relationships in countries where there are pervasive violations of basic human rights.

4. LEGAL REQUIREMENTS

We will not initiate or renew contractual relationships in countries where the legal environment creates unreasonable risk to our trademarks or to other important commercial interest or seriously impedes our ability to implement these guidelines.

5. POLITICAL OR SOCIAL STABILITY

We will not initiate or renew contractual relationships in countries where political or social turmoil unreasonably threatens our commercial interests.

Business Partner Terms of Engagement

Our concerns include the practices of individual business partners as well as the political and social issues in those countries where we might consider sourcing.

We have defined business partners as contractors and suppliers who provide labor and/or material utilized in the manufacture of our products.

1. ETHICAL STANDARDS

We will seek to identify and utilize business partners who aspire as indi viduals and in the conduct of their business to a set of ethical standards not incompatible with our own.

2. HEALTH & SAFETY

We will only utilize business partners who provide workers with a safe and healthy work environment. Business partners who provide residential facilities for their workers must provide safe and healthy facilities.

3. LEGAL REQUIREMENTS

We expect our business partners to be law abiding as individuals and to comply with all legal requirements relevant to the conduct of their busi ness.

4. EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

We will only do business with partners whose workers are in all cases present voluntarily, not put at risk of physical harm, fairly compensated, allowed the right of free association and not exploited in anyway. In addition, the following specific guidelines will be followed.

• Wages and Benefits
  

  We will only do business with partners who provide wages and ben efits that comply with any applicable law or match the prevailing manufacturing industry practices. We will also favor business part ners who share our commitment to contribute to the betterment of community conditions.
  

• Working Hours
  

  While permitting flexibility in scheduling, we will identify prevailing local work hours and seek business partners who do not exceed them except for appropriately compensated overtime. We favor part ners who utilize no more than forty-eight-hour regularly scheduled work weeks. We will not use contractors who, on a regularly sched uled basis, require in excess of forty-eight-hour work weeks. Em ployees should be allowed one day off in seven days.
  

• Child Labor
  

  Use of child labor is not permissible. "Child" is defined as less than 16 years of age or younger than the compulsory age to be in school. We will not utilize partners who use child labor in any of their facili ties. We support the development of legitimate workplace appren ticeship programs for the educational benefits of younger people.
  

• Prison Labor/Forced Labor
  

  We will not knowingly utilize prison or forced labor in contracting or subcontracting relationships in the manufacture of our products. We will not knowingly utilize or purchase materials from a business part ner utilizing prison or forced labor.

• Discrimination
  

  While we recognize and respect cultural differences, we believe that workers should be employed on the basis of their ability to do the job, rather than on the basis of personal characteristics or beliefs. We will favor business partners who share in this value.
  

• Disciplinary Practices
  

  We will not utilize business partners who use corporal punishment or other forms of mental or physical coercion.

5. ENVIRONMENTAL REQUIREMENTS

We will only do business with partners who share our commitment to the environment.