Binding supply-chain labour agreements at a glance

These are agreements between companies, trade unions and labour rights organisations, aimed at improving working conditions in their supply chains. They generally cover workers in factories or other workplaces in production countries. These workers are not employed directly by the participating brands or retailers, but by local suppliers or producers, for example, in factories or on farms.

What distinguishes the agreements covered on this page from brands’ voluntary commitments, and from many other international framework agreements between transnational companies and global trade unions, is that participating companies undertake commitments they are legally bound to.

Binding supply-chain labour agreements are a relatively recent development, and only a handful currently exist. The two with the longest track records and broadest coverage are:

• the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Garment and Textile Industry and
• the Fair Food Program.

Both also have independent complaint mechanisms, with procedures for resolving complaints and obligations on brands to ensure suppliers comply with the outcomes.

There are also other binding agreements with a much narrower scope, including agreements covering a single brand, or particular factories or workplaces. Some require workplace-level complaint channels or establish independent complaint channels and place obligations on brands to ensure that harms are addressed.

Opportunities, limitations and how to use them

Commitments under these binding agreements make it harder for companies to evade their responsibility to ensure and protect human rights in their supply chains. In particular, these agreements require brands to ensure their commercial practices create the economic conditions that enable factories and farms to respect workers’ rights and address and remedy harms. Where a specific harm or risk is not addressed, the agreements also enable workers and their representatives to engage brands and press them to use their leverage.

Their broader relevance is nevertheless limited because only a small number exist and their geographic, sectoral or workplace scope is narrow. They will therefore be an option only where the workers, workplace and issue concerned fall within the scope of a specific agreement.

Information on using independent complaint mechanisms

Below, you can find information on how workers can use the independent complaint mechanisms available under the International Accord and the Fair Food Program. For other binding agreements, complaints have to be raised through workplace-level channels.

1. International Accord for Health and Safety in the Garment and Textile Industry

Legally binding agreement between hundreds of garment brands and retailers (see full list here) and two global trade unions IndustriALL Global Union and UNI Global Union to advance worker health and safety across textile and garment factories. The Accord is a framework implemented through country-specific safety programmes, currently in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Participating brands must sign the International Accord and at least one country-specific agreement:

Complaint mechanism for workers

Workers and their representatives at covered factories can raise occupational health and safety concerns through an independent, impartial and confidential complaints mechanism. Complaints specialists investigate and resolve complaints and, where appropriate, ensure effective remedy. Brands must support the mechanism and require their suppliers to comply with its outcomes.

How to make a complaint

1. Prepare your complaint:

Check coverage: Check that your workplace is a covered factory and that the issue concerns occupational health and safety. If you are unsure, you can seek assistance from a local trade union, a union involved in the Accord, or the relevant complaints mechanism.

Consider your safety: The Accord provides protection against retaliation for workers using its complaints mechanism. However, there may still be risks in practice. If you are concerned about possible retaliation or other safety risks, consider seeking advice from a trade union or worker representative before submitting the complaint.

Gather the relevant information: Where possible, note the factory name and location, what happened or what the health or safety risk is, when and where it occurred, who or what is affected, and any relevant supporting information. You can also explain what you think should be done to address the problem. You do not need to have all this information or documentary evidence before making a complaint

2. Submit your complaint:

In Bangladesh, contact the RMG Sustainability Council:

• Toll-free hotline: 16224
• Email: [email protected].

In Pakistan, contact the Pakistan Accord through

• Toll-free: 0800 472 0
• WhatsApp: +92 326 8180001
• Local number: 0326 8180001
• Email: [email protected]

What happens after the complaint is filed?

A complaints specialist assesses and investigates the complaint. Where an occupational health and safety complaint is found to have grounds, the complaints specialist determines the remediation of hazards and remedy for any harm done. If the factory fails to resolve the complaint or otherwise cooperate with the complaints process, this triggers the Accord’s escalation process, which involves notice and warning and may ultimately lead participating brands to terminate their business relationship with the factory

Published complaint records in Bangladesh and Pakistan

Governance and Enforcement of brand commitments:

• The Steering Committee monitors and enforces signatories’ obligations and has overall management of the Accord. It has equal representation from brands and trade unions, with the ILO as neutral chair. The Secretariat oversees signatory compliance and the day-to-day implementation of the Accord.
• Disputes between parties: disputes concerning compliance with the Accord are referred to the Steering Committee, which can decide the dispute and require remediation.
• Binding arbitration: Parties can appeal the Steering Committee's decision to final and binding arbitration. The resulting award is enforceable in court.

2. Fair Food Program

Initiative built around legally enforceable agreements between the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a farmworker human rights organisation, around 15 food companies, based mostly in the USA, and dozens of participating growers, seeking to ensure better wages and working conditions for farmworkers, as described in the Fair Food Code of Conduct.

The Programme began in 2011 in Florida’s tomato industry and now covers participating growers producing a range of crops, overwhelmingly in the USA, with a small number of participating operations in Chile and South Africa.

Complaint mechanism for workers

Workers at participating farms can raise possible violations of the Fair Food Code of Conduct through the Fair Food Standards Council (FFSC), the independent body responsible for monitoring the Programme. Its complaint hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and confidentiality is protected. FFSC investigators investigate and resolve complaints, normally in cooperation with the grower. The Programme does not publish individual complaint records, but reports over 3,900 hotline complaints since it began.

How to make a complaint

1. Prepare your complaint:

Check coverage: Because coverage depends on the particular grower, location and crop, workers should check whether their farm is currently participating in the Programme. If you are unsure, you can contact the FFSC or the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) for assistance.

Consider your safety: Retaliation against workers for making or assisting with a complaint is prohibited under the Fair Food Code. However, there may still be risks in practice. If you are concerned about retaliation or other safety risks, consider seeking advice from the CIW, another worker organisation or a worker representative before submitting a complaint.

Gather the relevant information: Where possible, note the farm or employer, what happened or what the problem is, when and where it occurred, who is affected, and any relevant supporting information. You do not need to have all this information or documentary evidence before making a complaint.

2. Submit your complaint:

• Contact the Fair Food Standards Council worker hotline:
  • United States: +1 855 873 9494
  • Mexico: 800 077 7731
  • South Africa: +27 87 195 1179
  • Chile: +56 8 0023 1112
  • Guatemala: +502 2355 6990

What happens after the complaint?

The FFSC assesses and investigates the complaint, normally in cooperation with the grower. Growers must cooperate with investigations, must not retaliate against workers for making a complaint, and must address complaints to the satisfaction of the FFSC through an approved Complaint Resolution. If the grower and FFSC cannot agree on the resolution of a complaint, the grower can appeal the FFSC’s proposed resolution through arbitration. According to the Programme’s 2024 report, only one such appeal had taken place since the Programme began.

If a grower fails to comply with an approved Complaint Resolution, it will be suspended from the Programme. Certain serious violations can also lead directly to suspension. Participating Buyers must stop purchasing covered products from suspended growers.

3. Other examples of binding-supply chain labour agreements

1. Agreements addressing gender-based violence and harassment

a. Central Java Agreement for Gender Justice – Indonesia

Legally binding agreement between two Indonesian garment factories (PT Batang Apparel Indonesia and PT Semarang Garment Indonesia), owned by South Korean apparel manufacturer Ontide, Fanatics Brands, a U.S.-based licensed sports merchandise company, four plant-level unions, and three international labour rights organisations, to prevent and remedy gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) at these two factories.

Signed in 2024, the agreement covers around 6,250 workers, and requires the factories to operate a grievance mechanism with several options for workers to report GBVH and seek remedy, including requesting an independent investigation. Fanatics has provided a written commitment to support the programme and hold Ontide accountable for compliance with the agreement.

b. Action, Collaboration, Transformation (ACT) Agreements – Cambodia

The Cambodia programme launched in 2024, based on individual legally binding agreements between global garment brands and IndustriALL Global Union to support higher wages and better working conditions through collective bargaining at supplier factories. The brand agreements operate alongside factory-level collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) between Cambodian employers and trade unions based on a template CBA, that is not public. There is currently no publicly available list of factories covered by these CBAs.

14 brands, including ASOS, C&A, and H&M have publicly signed individual agreements under this programme. Additional brands have signed individual agreements without public communication. Brand commitments include maintaining agreed sourcing volumes from Cambodia, incorporating collectively bargained wage increases into purchasing prices, and contributing to a skills and training fund. The commitments are enforceable through binding international arbitration at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

2. ASOS–ITF Human Rights Due Diligence Agreement

This legally binding agreement between ASOS and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) was announced in September 2025 to protect human rights in ASOS’s global transport and logistics supply chain, including directly operated and subcontracted operations. Under the agreement, ASOS and ITF cooperate on human rights due diligence, including identifying and mitigating risks and determining remedy where rights are violated.

3. Milk with Dignity

Inspired by the Fair Food Program, Milk with Dignity is a programme developed by the farmworker organisation Migrant Justice to improve wages, working and housing conditions for workers on dairy farms. In 2017, Migrant Justice signed a legally binding agreement with Ben & Jerry’s, under which the company committed to source from farms participating in the Programme and support their compliance with the worker-developed Milk with Dignity Code of Conduct. The programme currently covers 20% of Vermont’s dairy industry (54 participating farms and 256 qualifying workers in 2024).

Participating farms must comply with standards on wages, working hours, health and safety, housing, discrimination and other labour rights. Workers have access to a 24/7 independent support and complaint line, operated by the Milk with Dignity Standards Council, which investigates complaints and oversees their resolution. In 2025, Vermont Way Foods also joined the Programme through an agreement with Migrant Justice.