Working with suppliers to eliminate fees for migrant workers Patagonia’s supply chain

Some of Patagonia’s suppliers in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and Korea hire foreign migrant workers (FMW) to take jobs in their factories. These workers are desperately seeking jobs and are lured in by the prospect of making a wage several times what they make in their home country. After the workers pay the fee, they become vulnerable to bonded labor and forced labor while in a new country. At Patagonia, we see this problem mainly in our fabric mills in Taiwan. We are working with our suppliers to eliminate those fees for workers.

Our Migrant Worker Program uses several strategies to drive change: we developed Migrant Worker Employment Standards for our supply chain; we have an ongoing partnership with Verité, an expert supply chain NGO that is helping us with everything from understanding the hiring process and laws to training our suppliers and auditing them; we started a brand collaboration with other prominent outdoor and apparel companies to move the industry toward “responsible recruitment” in Taiwan; we engage with the public sector, including government and NGOs.