To amend the Purchasing Policy of the City of [X], in order to ensure that when the City procures apparel, other textile goods and/or textile-related services or licenses its trademarks, the City does not contract with sweatshops.

Section 1. PREAMBLE

WHEREAS it is in the interests of the City to purchase goods and services from responsible manufacturers that provide quality products and services at a competitive price.

WHEREAS the City does not want to do business with companies that compete by exploiting their workers.

WHEREAS the City purchases items of apparel, an industry in which there have been many recent reports of worker rights abuses and sweatshop conditions, such as poverty wages, excessive hours of work, discrimination, abusive treatment, child labour, and failure to provide statutory benefits.

WHEREAS the spread of sweatshop practices in the apparel and related industries threaten the jobs and working conditions of all manufacturing workers in the City of [X].

WHEREAS sweatshop abuses flourish when the conditions of workers are hidden.

WHEREAS pressure from institutional purchasers such as governments is an effective way to combat sweatshop practices.

AND WHEREAS, the City chooses to allocate its purchasing dollars in order to enhance, rather than degrade, the economic and social well being of the City.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council and the City of [X] adopt the following "No Sweat" Procurement Policy.

Section 2. DEFINITIONS

"Child" means any person less than 15, unless local minimum age law stipulates a higher age for work or mandatory schooling, or less than 14 if minimum wage law is set at that age in accordance with developing country exceptions under ILO Convention 138.

"Employer" means an entity that employs or contracts a worker in the production of a product.

"Homeworker" means any person who carries out work in his or her home or in other premises of his or her own choice, other than the workplace of the employer, for remuneration, which results in a product or service as specified by the employer, irrespective of who provides the equipment, materials and or other inputs used.

"Minimum labour standards" means the minimum labour standards set out in section 3.

"Policy" means this document in its entirety.

"Product" means, any article of clothing, head-wear or footwear, or any item made of fabric or by knitting, weaving or felting manufactured for the City or any of its Agencies, Boards, Commissions or Authorities.

"Services" means services involved in the provision or maintenance of textile products used by the city or any of its Agencies, Boards, Commissions, or Authorities, such as laundry services.

"Supplier" means an entity who in the course of a commercial business sells a product or service to the City or any of its Agencies, Boards, Commissions, or Authorities. It also includes any licensee that enters into an agreement with the City to use a trademark on a product.

"Subcontractor" means any entity who directly or indirectly provides the supplier with goods and/or services integral to the manufacture, provision or maintenance of textile products for the City.

"Trademark" means a trademark, logo or other symbol associated with the City or any of its Agencies, Boards, Commissions, or Authorities.

"Worker" means a person involved in the manufacture or provision of services for a product.

Wages that meet "basic needs" by local standards are most effectively determined through free collective bargaining. In the absence of free collective bargaining, wages that meet "basic needs" should be defined as wages paid for a normal 48-hour work week that are sufficient by local standards to provide for the food, clothing, housing, health care, potable water, child care and transportation needs of the worker and his/her dependents. In defining wages that meet basic needs, factors that should be taken into account include the average number of dependents and the average number of wage earners per family in the sector in each country, local "market basket" surveys of the cost of goods and services needed by an average family, as well as data from local governments, labour and human rights organizations, and UN agencies.

3. LABOUR STANDARDS PROVISIONS

Where this policy and the applicable laws of the country of manufacture differ, the standard that provides the greater right, benefit or protection to the worker shall apply.

Every supplier shall ensure that its manufacturing facilities, and those of its subcontractors, comply with national and other laws applicable in each workplace and shall respect this Policy and the internationally recognized workers' rights and labour standards expressed in the UN Declarations and the conventions of the UN's International Labour Organization. Furthermore, all suppliers and their subcontractors shall ensure that:

Forced Labour
No employer shall subject a worker to forced labour practices, whether in the form of involuntary prison labour, indentured labour, bonded labour or otherwise. Workers shall not be required to lodge financial deposits or their original identity papers with their employer.

Child Labour
No employer shall use child labour. Adequate transitional economic assistance and appropriate educational opportunities shall be provided to any displaced child worker. Workers under the age of 18 shall not be exposed to situations in the workplace that are hazardous, unsafe or unhealthy.

Harassment and Abuse
No worker shall be subject to physical, sexual, psychological abuse or harassment, verbal abuse, or any other form of abuse, including corporal punishment.

Discrimination
No employer shall discriminate against a worker in hiring, compensation, access to training, promotion, or termination on the basis of age, race, caste, national origin, religion, disability, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, union membership or political affiliation.

Women's Rights
No worker shall be subject to the forced use of contraceptives or pregnancy testing. Workers will be permitted to take maternity leave without facing the threat of dismissal, loss of seniority or deduction in wages, and shall be able to return to their former employment at the same rate of pay and benefits.

Hours of Work
No employer shall require a worker to work in excess of 48 hours per week, and shall provide each of its workers with one day off for every seven-day period. If a worker is requested to work overtime (more than 48 hours per week), such overtime shall not exceed 12 hours per week, only be requested in exceptional and short-term circumstances and be remunerated at a premium rate.

Freedom of Association and the Right to Bargain Collectively
Workers shall have the right to join or form trade unions of their own choosing and to bargain collectively. Workers' representatives shall not be discriminated against and shall have access to carry out their representation functions in the workplace. Where the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining is restricted under law, the employer shall facilitate and will not hinder the development of parallel means for independent and free association and bargaining.

Wages and Compensation
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 paid for a standard working week should always be enough to meet basic needs of workers and their families and to provide some discretionary income. All workers shall be provided with written and understandable information about their employment conditions with respect to their wages.
Deductions from wages as a disciplinary measure shall not be permitted.

Health and Safety
Every employer shall provide its workers with a safe and healthy workplace, including access to clean toilet facilities, potable water and, if appropriate, sanitary facilities for the storage of food. If accommodations are provided, such accommodations shall be clean, safe, and meet the basic needs of the workers. Adequate steps shall be taken to prevent accidents and injury to health by minimizing the causes of hazards inherent in the working environment. Workers shall receive regular and recorded health and safety training, and such training shall be repeated for new or reassigned workers.

Employment Relationship
To every extent possible work performed must be on the basis of a recognized employment relationship established through national law and practice. 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, subcontracting, 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.

Homeworkers
The employer shall take special steps to ensure that homeworkers are afforded a similar level of protection as would be afforded to directly employed personnel under the requirements of this Policy. Such special steps shall include but not be limited to:

1. establishing legally binding, written purchasing contracts requiring conformance to minimum criteria (in accordance with the requirements of the Policy);
2. ensuring that the requirements of the written purchasing contract are understood and implemented by homeworkers and all other parties involved in the purchasing contract;
3. maintaining, on the employer's premises, comprehensive records detailing the identities of homeworkers; the quantities of goods produced/services provided and/or hours worked by each homeworker; and
4. frequent announced and unannounced monitoring activities to verify compliance with the terms of the written purchasing contract.

Employers shall keep adequate records of their employees' names, addresses, rate of pay and number of hours worked each week in order to make this information available for a third-party audit.

Awareness of Policy
Workers whose work is covered by the Policy shall be made aware of the Policy orally and through the posting of standards in a prominent place in the local language(s) spoken by employees and managers.

4. COMPLIANCE

1. Before the City or any of its Agencies, Boards, Commissions, or Authorities enters into an agreement with a supplier, the supplier must confirm in an affidavit to the City that:
   1. it will comply with ethical labour practices that meet or exceed the minimum labour standards in the Policy; and
   2. it acquires goods and services from subcontractors who agree to comply with labour practices that meet or exceed the minimum labour standards.
2. In addition to the confirmation mentioned above, a supplier shall provide the names and addresses of each subcontractor and manufacturing facility to be used in the manufacture of the product. This information shall be considered public information.
3. Every supplier is responsible for monitoring their supply factories. Preference will be given to suppliers who use the services of third-party verifiers acceptable to the City.
4. Every supplier shall be required to submit an annual compliance report to the City containing information on the monitoring and verification program, the name(s) of the third-party verifier(s), the findings of monitoring and third-party audit(s), and corrective action taken to achieve compliance with international labour standards and local laws. This report shall be considered public information.

5. VIOLATIONS AND REMEDIAL ACTION

1. If the City receives a report that a supplier or subcontractor has violated the minimum labour standards of the Policy, the City shall send a notice of the violation to the supplier.
2. A notice of violation shall:
   1. describe the violation, including which minimum labour standard(s) of the Policy has/have been allegedly violated;
      specify the entity which the City believes has violated the minimum labour standards in the Policy; and
   2. set out the supplier's requirement to respond to a notice of violation within 30 days (in accordance with subsection 5.3).
3. Within 30 days from the date of the notice of violation, the supplier shall provide the City with:
   1. supporting information to demonstrate that the violation(s) described in the notice did not occur; or
   2. a detailed remedial plan to demonstrate how the violation described in the notice shall be rectified within one year of the date of the notice.
4. If the supplier responds to the notice of violation with documentation that the violation did not occur, the City may require the supplier to co-operate with a third-party audit or a Ministry of Labour audit.
5. If a third-party or Ministry of Labour audit determines that the violation of the minimum labour standards set out in the notice of violation did occur, the supplier shall submit a detailed program to demonstrate how the violation described in the notice shall be rectified within one year of the date of the notice.
6. If a remedial program has been submitted in response to a notice of violation, the City may require the supplier to co-operate with a third-party audit to verify that the violation has been rectified in accordance with the remedial program.

6. TERMINATION

1. The City has the authority to terminate any contract with a supplier without notice or penalty if:
   1. A supplier who has been sent a notice of violation has failed to make an adequate response within 30 days,
   2. The supplier refuses to submit or fails to cooperate with a third-party audit as required by the City; or
   3. A third-party audit of a factory where violations have been reportedly corrected (as per section 5.6) determines that the violation was not rectified in accordance with the agreed upon remedial program.
2. If the City terminates an agreement under this section with a supplier, it ceases to be liable to the supplier or to any other person for any unpaid amounts that would otherwise have been payable under the agreement and shall not be under any obligation to return to the supplier any product supplied by the supplier under the agreement.
3. The City, at its discretion, may terminate a contract or prohibit a vendor from holding contracts with the City for filing false information or for failing to file information required under this policy.