Fanatics Brands manufactures its products at three owned and operated facilities located in Tampa, Florida, Easton, Pennsylvania, and Norman, Oklahoma, and sources from 94 contracted facilities across 17 countries.
The FLA works to promote and protect workers’ rights and improve workplace conditions and its accreditation process requires companies to meet standards and benchmarks that are based on those of the International Labour Organization (ILO), UN Guiding Principles, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. As part of the process, companies agree to assessments of corporate systems for purchasing and sourcing and regular review of facilities in their global supply chain.
A company’s accreditation signifies that it understands the consequences of its business practices on workplace conditions, has put effective systems in place to prevent workplace abuses, and commits to remediating violations that occur. Accreditation provides a basis for socially responsible investors and consumers to make informed investing and purchasing choices.
The accreditation report on Fanatics Brands’ programme noted the following:
- Commitment to workplace standards: ‘Sustainability at Fanatics Brands’, the company’s social compliance programme, includes 11 global staff members, including regional managers in six countries. The company publishes its labour standards commitments online, reinforcing its obligations.
- Responsible purchasing practices: A long-range planning template and adherence to planning and operations calendars preserves production lead times and mitigates last-minute changes to orders. Regular cross-departmental meetings and weekly meetings with suppliers provide forums to analyse the impact of purchasing practices on working conditions.
- Fair compensation: Fanatics Brands has used the FLA Fair Compensation Dashboard to analyse wage data from 21% of its suppliers in scope and map wages against living wage estimates. Fanatics Brands drafted a blueprint for making living wage progress using this information.
- Monitoring: FLA verified that 100% of Fanatics Brands owned and tier one contract facilities received a full social compliance audit over a two-year period. Further, Fanatics Brands deployed an online workforce impact survey to all suppliers in response to Covid-19 restrictions that limited in-person audits. The survey focused on retrenchment risks, wage payment accuracy, and health and safety issues.
- Training: An extensive social compliance training programme for Fanatics Brands staff includes a required introductory training on responsible purchasing practices for all staff, and quarterly and annual sessions on workplace standards and topics such as grievance mechanisms, retrenchment, and freedom of association and collective bargaining for sustainability staff. The commitment to training extends to ensuring that global suppliers are aware of their responsibilities and the production workers are fully informed of their rights.
“On behalf of the entire Fanatics Brands team, we are extremely proud to receive this accreditation from the Fair Labor Association, one of our industry’s most important and purposeful organisations,” says Joe Bozich, president, Fanatics Brands. “We take great pride in running a socially responsible business that respects workers’ rights, and believe we have an obligation and opportunity to use our business to make a positive difference for the people and in the communities in which we operate.”
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By GlobalDataSharon Waxman, FLA president and CEO, adds: “Accreditation by the Fair Labor Association shows that Fanatics Brands plays by the rules when it comes to protecting the rights of the workers who make its officially licensed gear for sports fans. FLA accreditation is a tangible sign of Fanatics Brands’ pledge to meet the world’s highest labour standards and its commitment to continuous improvement toward better conditions for workers.”
