Shein revealed the update as part of its 2023 Sustainability and Social Impact Report
and revealed two cases of child labour in its supply chain were discovered as part of the audit process from Q1-Q3 2023.
At the time Shein suspended orders from the contract manufacturers in line with its SRS Policy while it carried out an investigation. It also awarded a 30-day remediation period and says both cases were resolved swiftly with remediation steps including terminating contracts with underage employees, ensuring the payment of any outstanding wages, arranging medical checkups and facilitating repatriation to parents/legal guardians as needed.
Shein says it also ensured the manufacturers bolstered their hire screening processes.
“Following appropriate remediation, the contract manufacturers were permitted to resume business.”
However, under its new Immediate Termination Violation policy as of Q4 2023 onwards, Shein will immediately terminate any non-compliant suppliers for more serious violations including child and forced labour as well as bribery and refusal to cooperate with Standard on Related Services (SRS) audits.
Immediate Remediation Violation policy will remain for other labour violations such as failure to pay minimum wage and workplace health and safety issues. For this partners will be given 30 days to remediate (from 90 days previously) before contracts are terminated.
“We previously focused on educating our suppliers and giving them an opportunity for remediation before termination. As suppliers are generally not exclusively contracted by Shein, this benefits the wider fashion ecosystem by instilling standards and best practices across the supply chain. It also helps to protect workers and their livelihoods.
“As our supply chain and suppliers have matured over time, we believe that we should now take a stricter stance on severe violations. Nevertheless, even for suppliers that Shein has decided to terminate, we send them action plans with guidance on how to remediate their identified ITVs/IRVs, so as to educate and empower the suppliers to take steps to improve conditions in their facilities.
“We will continue to carefully balance remediation and penalisation and ensure our supply chain governance approach is calibrated to protect workers and their rights,” the company added.
Shein has expressed confidence in its social compliance audits, revealing that audits across suppliers in 2023 delivered an increase in the A or B grade by 29% in 2023 from 18% in 2022.
