PEOPLE
Caring for people and partners
Our commitments
We will ensure that wellbeing, inclusion, and belonging are always a part of the Mint Velvet culture.
We’ll take steps to continuously improve working standards for workers in our supply chain.
We will engage transparently with our customers, employees, and stakeholders on how we are doing.
Our 2030 goal
We will always have inclusion, belonging and wellbeing as a key part of our culture and will seek out and nurture diverse perspectives and talent.
We want Mint Velvet to be a place where we are empowered to learn, share and respectfully challenge one another to create an environment where everyone feels included. We are committed to changing our culture and working practices with this in mind.
- Aggie Mutuma, our expert Diversity & Inclusion partner, helps us put a critical lens over everything we do at MV.
- We have trained all our managers to become more inclusive leaders and more fluent in the language of diversity.
- Improve our reach to talent from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and ensure our hiring process is the best it can be.
- Listen to lived experiences from people within our brands via further listening groups and a questionnaire.
- Develop measures to track our progress in becoming more diverse as a brand.
- Further partnerships within our local community to develop a diverse talent pipeline.
Our 2030 goal
Implement worker engagement programmes with suppliers, reaching 2,000 workers who make our products by 2030.
We understand we have a responsibility to make sure human rights are respected within our supply chain. We believe in nurturing collaborative and open relationships with our suppliers, which can help us understand their practices, challenges, and local context. Our standards are based on the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions and industry best practice. Though an important tool, we recognise the limits of social compliance audits. We are committed to supporting suppliers to continuously improve working standards and finding ways to support and work with them to engage workers meaningfully.
- We have adopted the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) basecode as our code of conduct and established a framework that sets out our ethical standards and norms.
- All first-tier manufacturing sites within Mint Velvet’s product supply chain are regularly audited.
- Joined the Ethical Trading Initative (ETI) as foundation members in 2022
- Adopt ETI’s Human Rights Due Diligence framework.
- Engage with ETI to define our roadmap to reach full membership
- Graduate to ETI full membership by 2024
Our 2030 goal
100% of product to be traceable to raw material and share 5 Factory profiles by 2030. Share our progress on an annual basis.
Transparency and traceability are an essential part of our commitment to sustainability, which is why we will start to publish our supply chain, policies, and our very own annual report to outline our progress against our goals. This report will be our way of being open about how we’re doing and what work we still need to do.
- We have mapped 100% of our tier 1 production sites.
- Further define our supply chain tiers and mapping targets
- Publish a list of tier 1 production sites.
- Map 100% of our tier 2 production sites.
- Share our first annual MV Conscious 2030 report.
Our Policies
Anti-slavery & human trafficking policy
We foster an organisational culture that respects dignity and human rights. Therefore, our Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking policy sets out Mint Velvet’s commitment to ensuring there is transparency in our own business and in our approach to tackling modern slavery throughout our supply chains.
Whistle blowing policy
We are committed to the highest possible standards of openness and accountability. In line with that commitment we expect employees, and others that we deal with, who have serious concerns about any aspect of the Company's work to come forward and voice those concerns without fear of reprisal so we have developed our Whistleblowing policy and require our suppliers to either follow it or have an equivalent policy in place.
Remediation for child & young worker policy
We do not tolerate child labour in our supply chains and so we are committed to improving our transparency by identifying and remediating any instances of child labour found in our factories. We expect our suppliers to adhere to this commitment by implementing this policy in order to protect children.
ETI base code
We use the ETI Base Code as the basis of our
supplier code of conduct.
1. Employment is freely chosen
1.1 There is no forced, bonded or involuntary prison labour.
1.2 Workers are not required to lodge “deposits” or their identity papers with their employer and are free
to leave their employer after reasonable notice.
2. Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining are respected
2.1 Workers, without distinction, have the right to join or form trade unions of their own choosing and to
bargain collectively.
2.2 The employer adopts an open attitude towards the activities of trade unions and their organisational
activities.
2.3 Workers representatives are not discriminated against and have access to carry out their representative
functions in the workplace.
2.4 Where the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining is restricted under law, the
employer facilitates, and does not hinder, the development of parallel means for independent and free
association and bargaining.
3. Working conditions are safe and hygienic
3.1 A safe and hygienic working environment shall be provided, bearing in mind the prevailing knowledge of
the industry and of any specific hazards. Adequate steps shall be taken to prevent accidents and injury to
health arising out of, associated with, or occurring in the course of work, by minimising, so far as is
reasonably practicable, the causes of hazards inherent in the working environment.
3.2 Workers shall receive regular and recorded health and safety training, and such training shall be
repeated for new or reassigned workers.
3.3 Access to clean toilet facilities and to potable water, and, if appropriate, sanitary facilities for
food storage shall be provided.
3.4 Accommodation, where provided, shall be clean, safe, and meet the basic needs of the workers.
3.5 The company observing the code shall assign responsibility for health and safety to a senior management
representative.
4. Child labour shall not be used
4.1 There shall be no new recruitment of child labour.
4.2 Companies shall develop or participate in and contribute to policies and programmes which provide for
the transition of any child found to be performing child labour to enable her or him to attend and remain in
quality education until no longer a child; “child” and “child labour” being defined in the appendices.
4.3 Children and young persons under 18 shall not be employed at night or in hazardous conditions.
4.4 These policies and procedures shall conform to the provisions of the relevant ILO standards.
5. Living wages are paid
5.1 Wages and benefits paid for a standard working week meet, at a minimum, national legal standards or
industry benchmark standards, whichever is higher. In any event wages should always be enough to meet basic
needs and to provide some discretionary income.
5.2 All workers shall be provided with written and understandable Information about their employment
conditions in respect to wages before they enter employment and about the particulars of their wages for the
pay period concerned each time that they are paid.
5.3 Deductions from wages as a disciplinary measure shall not be permitted nor shall any deductions from
wages not provided for by national law be permitted without the expressed permission of the worker
concerned. All disciplinary measures should be recorded.
6. Working hours are not excessive
6.1 Working hours must comply with national laws, collective agreements, and the provisions of 6.2 to 6.6
below, whichever affords the greater protection for workers. Sub-clauses 6.2 to 6.6 are based on
international labour standards.
6.2 Working hours, excluding overtime, shall be defined by contract, and shall not exceed 48 hours per
week.*
6.3 All overtime shall be voluntary. Overtime shall be used responsibly, taking into account all the
following: the extent, frequency and hours worked by individual workers and the workforce as a whole. It
shall not be used to replace regular employment. Overtime shall always be compensated at a premium rate,
which is recommended to be not less than 125% of the regular rate of pay.
6.4 The total hours worked in any seven day period shall not exceed 60 hours, except where covered by clause
6.5 below.
6.5 Working hours may exceed 60 hours in any seven day period only in exceptional circumstances where all of
the following are met:
this is allowed by national law;
this is allowed by a collective agreement freely negotiated with a workers’ organisation representing a
significant portion of the workforce;
appropriate safeguards are taken to protect the workers’ health and safety; and
the employer can demonstrate that exceptional circumstances apply such as unexpected production peaks,
accidents or emergencies.
6.6 Workers shall be provided with at least one day off in every seven day period or, where allowed by
national law, two days off in every 14 day period. * International standards recommend the progressive
reduction of normal hours of work, when appropriate, to 40 hours per week, without any reduction in workers’
wages as hours are reduced.
7. No discrimination is practiced
7.1 There is no discrimination in hiring, compensation, access to training, promotion, termination or
retirement based on race, caste, national origin, religion, age, disability, gender, marital status, sexual
orientation, union membership or political affiliation.
8. Regular employment is provided
8.1 To every extent possible work performed must be on the basis of recognised employment relationship
established through national law and practice.
8.2 Obligations to employees under labour or social security laws and regulations arising from the regular
employment relationship shall not be avoided through the use of labour-only contracting, sub- contracting,
or homeworking arrangements, or through apprenticeship schemes where there is no real intent to impart
skills or provide regular employment, nor shall any such obligations be avoided through the excessive use of
fixed-term contracts of employment.
9. No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed
9.1 Physical abuse or discipline, the threat of physical abuse, sexual or other harassment and verbal abuse
or other forms of intimidation shall be prohibited.