Workers in the Supply Chain

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), child labor is defined as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.” This includes work that interferes with the schooling of children. Our Workplace Standards state that our suppliers must not employ children under 15 years of age, or below the age for the completion of compulsory education, if that is over 15.

The adidas Social and Environmental Affairs team was formed as a result of concerns over the presence of child labor in global supply chains, which was a clear focus for us in the late 1990s. The founding director of our program was a former Director of Save the Children and our policies and practices led the industry. With the growing football stitching industry in Sialkot, Pakistan, we recognized at an early stage the need to address the underlying issues of poverty, employment and access to schooling for children through a combination of educational and social development programs. We have sponsored education programs in Sialkot, to improve access to schooling for children from the rural locations where home-stitching was once prevalent. One such program started as an industry-wide initiative supported by the ILO and UNICEF, establishing an independent child labor monitoring body which is now self-governing.

Our approach to children's rights

The adidas Labor Rights Charta commits the company to upholding labor and human rights for its employees, and to respect and promote such rights through our business relationships. The Charta describes our support for the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the core labor principles of the International Labor Organization, including a prohibition on the employment of child labor. Within this broad framework, adidas is committed to upholding children’s rights as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the principle that: “In all actions concerning children … the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”  (Article 3, CRC)

adidas’ commitment to child rights is demonstrated through our policies, procedures and daily practices, both internally and in terms of how we manage our business relationships, as illustrated below.

• Policies and standards: Our policies on child labor have always been centered on a concern for the child and protecting their interests, as well as recognizing the importance of income to support households and schooling. Our past experience in working with the United Nations and industry partners on eliminating the worst forms of child labor, informs our due diligence and risk mitigation strategies, as we continue to extend our efforts and to reach upstream suppliers, including raw materials sources. Any finding of child labor will require a supplier to pay an ongoing wage to the family of the child laborer and for the child to return to school until they are of a legal age to work. They must then be offered re-employment by the supplier, in a role that would not involve excessive hours or hazardous work. In the past we have often partnered with local NGOs to manage and track such activities, or support in the identification of school options. It is important for our brand that all production takes place in authorized locations, both for compliance and quality reasons. We do not permit home working or unauthorized subcontracting, both of which may increase the risk of child labor. To support this policy, we employ tracking systems to ensure that we have knowledge and visibility of each stage of the production process and trace the movement of product components and materials up until the finished product is shipped to the customer. All new suppliers must be screened for the presence of child labor and, if found, this issue must be immediately addressed. If a prospective supplier is unable or unwilling to establish a human resources management system with the relevant ID-checking and verification processes, to minimize the risk hiring of child labor, or to address a specific instance or finding of child labor, they will not qualify as an approved supplier for adidas. In such circumstances, we would reach out to the labor authorities and, where appropriate, to local NGOs for assistance. Our requirements in managing child labor, as well as the employment of juvenile labor (those who are of a legal age to work, but under 18) is presented in our Employment Guidelines. These guidelines, which were first issued in 2001 and updated in 2010 and 2016 and 2020, are shared with every supplier and apply equally to all subcontracting relationships and materials suppliers.
• Transparency: We are committed to transparency and make public the names and locations of our main suppliers and their immediate subcontractors, including those making indirectly for us through licensees and agents. We also publish lists of our Tier 2 materials suppliers. We recognize that there are parts of our supply chain which our mainstream monitoring program does not reach. For example, the sourcing of raw materials such as cotton. As an agricultural product, cotton is often grown on smallholdings or by tenant farmers in the developing world. Such farming practices come with a risk of child labor, as the farmers and their families struggle to survive and generate an income from this water sensitive crop. To control this risk and manage other labor and livelihood concerns, as well as supporting environmental improvements and water resource management objectives, we source 100% of our cotton through Better Cotton (BC). BC-sourced cotton is subject to an assurance system that follows international labor standards, including restrictions against the use of forced and child labor. For relevant case studies and evaluations of our work on addressing child labor in our supply chain, please see: Stop Child Labour, Child Labour in the Leather Footwear Industry, December 2012; CSR Asia, Joining the dialogue: Vulnerable children and business, 2013; Fair Labor Association, adidas assessment for reaccreditation, October 2017.
• Committed to respect children’s rights: The rights of children are enshrined in international human rights law and are a state obligation. The 1989 Child Rights Convention goes beyond a prohibition or elimination of child labor, it also considers the protection and promotion of a broader set of child rights that are incapsulated in four key principles: (1) Non-discrimination and equality of opportunity for children; (2) The best interests of children must be a primary consideration; (3) Children’s right to life, survival and development; (4) The views of the child matter. adidas upholds the Children’s Rights and Business Principles (CRBPs) published by UNICEF in 2012. The CRBPs identify a range of actions business should take, to address the potential impacts business could have on children in the workplace, marketplace, community and environment. 

We are committed to respect children’s rights. We do so through our efforts to eliminate child labor and provide decent work for young people in our global supply chain, as described earlier, and by our commitment to: Ensuring the protection and safety of children in all our business activities and facilities; Ensuring that products and services are safe; Using marketing and advertising that respect and support children’s rights; Respecting and supporting children’s rights in relation to the environment; Helping protect children affected by emergencies; Reinforcing community and government efforts to protect and fulfil children’s rights

• Ensuring products and services are safe: Our product safety team ensures that all products likely to be used by children are designed and tested in line with relevant national and international standards. Moreover, product safety legislation that sets out specific requirements for defined children ages or size formats, is applied with a special level of care. We continue to lead our industry in safety-related chemical management and physical product requirements and seek to ensure that products and services for children or to which children may be exposed are safe and do not cause harm. Our product labelling and information for instance is clear, accurate and complete, including age restrictions and consumer guidance. This enables parents and children to make informed decisions. We also seek to prevent – and eliminate – the risk that products and associated services could be used to abuse, exploit, or otherwise harm children in any way. This includes the development of social media and privacy policies to protect the rights of children who seek to interact with our business through e-commerce or online platforms.
• Protecting children in emergencies: Our emergency relief efforts and humanitarian aid have been centered on protecting children. We have decades long partnerships with SOS Children Villages, Save the Children, Habitat for Humanity and other non-profit agencies. In the past, we have actively supported and funded relief efforts for families and children impacted by the Rohingya refugee crisis. This included both cash and in-kind donations to child-rights organizations operating within the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Similar cash and in-kind donations have been made to relief agencies working in the Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, where almost 50% of those housed in such camps are unaccompanied minors. We have also helped protect Syrian refugee children who have fled to Turkey, by raising awareness of the increased risks of violence, abuse and exploitation of children in such contexts. We have partnered with the Fair Labor Association and Turkish Ministry of Labor to create and distribute a leaflet in both Arabic and Turkish for employers for the prevention of child labor, informing them of relevant laws and regulations and the fines in case of any non-compliance.
• The right to play and child safeguarding in sport: As a global sporting goods company, adidas has long championed children’s right to play, including access to sports. To achieve this, we have both launched and participated in several initiatives. Recently, adidas has worked with the Ministry of Education in China, providing training for around 50,000 Chinese sports teachers, who in turn are teaching soccer skills in more than 20,000 schools, reaching 20 million youngsters in total. In partnership with UNESCO, adidas has also had a part to play in the Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s (FIFA’s) Football for Schools program, which aims to make football more accessible to children, by incorporating football activities into physical education curricula. This international sports program targets over 700 million school children. As a sponsor of clubs, players and sports bodies – such as FIFA – we have engaged with our partners over the question of child safeguarding, especially for young professionals. That engagement has included outreach to the Centre for Sports and Human Rights in Geneva, which is actively promoting child safeguarding around major sporting events, such as the FIFA World Cup events. adidas is a member of the Centre’s Advisory Council, along with UN agencies, governments, unions and other civil society groups.

adidas strictly prohibits the use of any form of forced labor or the trafficking in persons across all of our company operations and in our global supply chain. We treat forced labor, human trafficking and slavery with a zero-tolerance approach. 

Click here to read more about our approach. 

We have worked closely with the ILO and various NGOs to safeguard the rights of migrant workers who have found employment within our supply chain. This includes the development of guidance and industry best practice to eliminate the exploitative actions of intermediaries and unscrupulous employment agencies, as well as ensuring freedom of movement, equal treatment and proper employment contracts for migrant workers. Details of our policies and guidance can be found in our Guidelines on Employment Standards.

We are signatories of the American Apparel Footwear Association – Fair Labor Association [AAFA-FLA] pledge on responsible recruitment. Early in 2019, we communicated our zero recruitment fee directive to all business partners globally. Our partnership with the UN’s International Organization for Migration comprises specialized trainings and due diligence measures, for our business partners in receiving countries and for recruitment agencies in sending countries. As part of our foreign labor risk mapping efforts, we have identified high risk migrant countries such as Taiwan and Thailand and are working closely with business partners to support their compliance with our zero recruitment fee requirement.

Although the adidas Labor Rights Charta does not make specific reference to women’s rights or the 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, those rights are protected by umbrella commitments made to ensure that employees and workers within the supply chain are treated equally and free from discrimination.

The Charta makes it clear that “equal opportunities for all employees and a prohibition on discrimination based upon one’s membership in a lawfully protected category are fundamental principles of our corporate policy. No person is to be unfairly disadvantaged, favored or ostracized because of… gender, gender identity, ... Harassment of any kind is forbidden... We believe Diversity is a key success factor for our business.” adidas lives these principles through its policies, procedures and daily practices, both internally and in terms of our business relationships. “We deeply believe that the respect for people is fundamental for business excellence. With this position we confirm our commitment to internationally recognized principles in the areas of human rights and labor conditions. We expect the conduct of our employees and business partners worldwide to reflect this commitment.”

Aligned with that commitment, we follow a holistic approach to uphold women’s rights, ensure gender equality and protect against all forms of gender-based discrimination, internally, and through our business relationships.

Own employees

As a truly international company with more than 80 nationalities at our German headquarters in Herzogenaurach alone, adidas embraces diversity and strives for equity and inclusion. There are many facets to diversity. Parity and equality across them all is essential in creating the ideal culture and protecting rights. Our goal is that at adidas, every single person feels welcome. We believe in equal opportunities for all, regardless of race, age, abilities, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity or religion. We hold ourselves to the same high standard for all our workplaces around the world, without exception. This is supported and communicated by our Executive Board. To support this drive for equality and diversity, we have various initiatives in place:

• Female mentoring programs and networks: Members of the Executive Board have been proactive in mentoring female talent. We have applied an equal gender split to our Global High Potential program, to guarantee that our succession pipeline is balanced. In addition, we have a very active Women’s Network in place across the company, which is developing mentoring circles to foster the professional development of junior colleagues.
• Mixed leadership teams: We believe that it is important that both women and men have equal opportunities to contribute and succeed. By the end of 2021, the company recorded that 37% of all management positions globally were held by women (2020: 35%).
• Equal pay: Under our Charta, adidas has committed to “provide our employees with fair and competitive compensation and benefits.” We are continuously improving our remuneration approach and are therefore investing in a number of projects and initiatives to increase the significance of our remuneration programs, as well as to ensure we are investing in the right people at the right level. One of the improvements has been the initiation of a new salary adjustment approach. It was applied in Germany and the US in 2017 to minimize salary differences and, more importantly, inequity of employees on the same positions and grades. It is based on a higher level of detail for external market data and addresses internal pay gaps – also helping ensure that we pay equally at the same level for female and male employees.
• Harassment: Harassment of any kind is forbidden. To track complaints, we have established a network of compliance officers worldwide. In 2013, we installed a global hotline called the ‘Fair Play Hotline’. With the Fair Play Hotline, our employees can submit complaints anonymously.

Click here to read more about all programs and initiatives for employees.

Women in our supply chain

Women make up half of adidas’ current global employee base and are the dominant gender in our supply chain; more than 80% of workers making our products are women. Women are given special status and protection under international human rights law. The International Labor Organization also regulates the treatment of women in the workplace through several conventions that specifically addresses fair treatment, non-discrimination and equal pay and conditions.

Our business partners are required to respect and promote women’s rights to health, education and work. The latter includes both equality of opportunity (for example, through fair hiring and retention strategies) and equality of outcome (for example, ensuing equal pay and benefits while in employment). Our approach is closely aligned with the expectations laid out in the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). (For a definition of discrimination by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 1997, see UN Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, 2014, UN Women’s Rights are Human Rights, p. 6. The underlying principles of CEDAW are reflected in the language of our Workplace Standards and our supporting Guidelines on Employment Standards (click here), which our business partners must follow.

Through our guidance to suppliers, we seek to uphold and protect women’s rights. Our guidelines explicitly state that “workers must not be discriminated against on the basis of their gender, marital status, or because they are pregnant or breastfeeding.” Moreover, women are to be guaranteed “equality of opportunity and treatment in access to training, employment, promotion, organization and decision making, in addition to securing equal conditions of remuneration, benefits, social security and welfare services.”

We have developed specific guidance and offer tailored programs and initiatives in collaboration with organizations aimed at securing the rights and ensuring the occupational safety of female workers in our supply chain.

• Gender equality and non-discrimination: We have supported gender equality and non-discrimination within our supply chain through a variety of programs and initiatives. For example, we have actively monitored and sought remedies for breaches of women’s rights, including discrimination in the hiring or treatment of female workers, based on gender, age or reproductive status; we have followed a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment, conducting investigations into claims and developing remedies for victims; we have supported specific reproductive and post-natal health projects, such as the establishment of breastfeeding areas, special canteen areas/food for pregnant workers and the provision of child-care facilities; we encourage our suppliers to go beyond legal requirements and support and subsidize the cost of education and health care for women and their children; we have participated in joint industry initiatives, such as HERproject from Business for Social Responsibility and the ‘Women in Factory’ program in China to support workplace-based interventions on health, financial inclusion, and gender equality; we have commissioned empowerment projects to support the hiring of women workers – where cultural norms had restricted job opportunities – and training initiatives to build skills for female workers whose employment has been displaced due to the introduction of new technologies. See below for more details about these projects.
• Equal pay for equal work: Everyone has the right “to fair wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value without distinction of any kind, in particular women being guaranteed conditions of work not inferior to those enjoyed by men, with equal pay for equal work.” (See Article 7(i), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966). Ensuring that our suppliers recognize and pay workers the same wages and benefits, irrespective of gender, is a core component of our approach to fair wages in the supply chain. This is supported by our strict enforcement of government-mandated minimum wages and legal overtime rates for workers. Based on the wage research we have commissioned in the past and the wage data we collect during our regular factory monitoring activities, we have achieved a high level of compliance with this wage requirement.
• Benefits and entitlements: To complement our work on fair wages, our close engagement with suppliers has resulted in consistently high levels of compliance in fulfilling female workers’ employment rights and benefits. These include maternity leave allowances, restricting overtime for pregnant women, menstrual leave, provision of daycare and nursing facilities. For example, as early as 2001 we engaged with Phulki, an NGO focused on women and child rights in Bangladesh, to promote improvements and access to daycare facilities, which are essential for young mothers re-entering the workforce. From this initial partnership, Phulki has been retained to engage directly with women workers to understand and track their concerns and issues.
• Sexual harassment and gender-based violence: Sexual harassment or abuse, repeated use of rude or improper language, or any type of behavior which is inappropriate or used to intimidate workers is unacceptable. Sexual, physical or verbal harassment or any other types of activity which create an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment are prohibited and are treated as a serious breach of our Workplace Standards. To address such issues, we require our suppliers to have the appropriate policies, procedures and training programs for workers and managers in place, as well as grievance systems to handle worker complaints (see detailed guidance given in our Guidelines on Employment Standards). We independently review the effectiveness of these systems and will intervene directly if we see evidence of sexual harassment in our suppliers’ factories.

Women empowerment projects

• Pathways for Promise Program (Bangladesh): In partnership with the Asia University for Women, adidas supplier factories in Bangladesh are participating in a program whereby workers are supported while seeking further education at the university and students from the university are able to participate in an internship program with the factories. In this program, workers receive a salary from the factory while they are attending classes.
• Women in Factories (China): Initiated in collaboration with Walmart in 2011, this program has been continued at one of our key suppliers in North China with more than 16,000 workers. It aims to provide capacity building to female workers through fundamental life skills training for women in the workplace. Topics include health, communication, skills necessary for career advancement and for gaining practical knowledge that can enhance quality of life for workers and their families. Every year, a new batch of female workers is enrolled into this program.
• Americas Group (El Salvador and Honduras): Through its active participation in the multi-stakeholder initiative the Americas Group (AG), adidas has been collaborating with other brands, the Maquila Solidarity Network, the Fair Labor Association (FLA), and local labor rights and feminist CSOs on finding sustainable remediation to macro-level issues heavily affecting women maquila workers. Much of the AG work in Central America derives from the Women’s Labor Rights Agenda for the Central American Maquiladora Industry published in 2014 by the Central American Women’s Network in Support of Maquila Workers (REDCAM). As a priority, the AG has been focusing on supporting local efforts in identifying sustainable ways for employers to meet their legal obligations around child-care provision. In addition, in 2017 the AG began exploring possible ways to help improve how brands and factories prevent, identify and remediate sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence in the workplace.
• Women’s Empowerment with Baidarie (Pakistan): Launched in 2017, this project aims to provide women with economic opportunities by strengthening their knowledge and skills. It has equipped home-based women workers impacted by the automation of the football stitching industry with locally marketable and demand–driven skills, creating opportunities for the induction of trained female workers into the formal sector and enabling women to set up their own profitable micro- and small-sized business enterprises. Click here to read more. 
• Women Empowerment Program (Turkey): adidas currently runs a pilot project with an apparel supplier to promote gender equality and to empower female workers. Our aim is to increase the awareness of female workers on gender mainstreaming and women’s rights, increase the solidarity and communication among women workers and strengthen communication between female/male employees and the factory management through training, briefings, workshops and workplace activities.
• UNICEF (Vietnam): UNICEF is implementing a workplace program at footwear and apparel suppliers in Vietnam covering issues of breastfeeding, maternity protection, maternal health & nutrition, wages and working hours, among others. Two adidas suppliers, with a total workforce of close to 76,000 workers, are enrolled in this program.

Female worker satisfaction survey

In line with our strategic ambition for 2020 to empower workers across our entire supply chain, we started to conduct worker satisfaction surveys in factories of our strategic suppliers in 2016. The aim is to better understand and respond to workers’ needs. Supported by an external partner, the most recent survey was conducted in 2017 and included female respondents, both workers and supervisors. Results show a clear trend toward a positive perception on the topic of fair wages and the absence of sexual harassment.

Of more than 7,500 female workers surveyed, 81,4% believe their wages to be ‘fair’ or ‘very fair’, while only 1.3% stated it was ‘unfair’. A further 62,6% also stated they are rewarded for good performance. On the topic of sexual harassment three quarters of female survey respondents confirmed they have not experienced or witnessed any harassment or abuse in the factory.

Overall, we conducted worker satisfaction surveys in around 50 factories across nine Asian countries including China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Sri Lanka in 2017. The survey results serve as good overview of our continuous quest to understand our workers’ needs through listening to them. We use the survey results to further ensure a stable and beneficial working environment, and we will track the trend and progress in the next round.