UK retailer ASOS & ITF sign deal to protect transport workers' rights

The partnership builds on ASOS’ long-standing leadership in embedding human rights across its business and supply chains, extending this commitment into transport and logistics.

Under a legally-binding human rights due diligence (HRDD) agreement, ASOS and the ITF will cooperate in conducting HRDD in ASOS’ transport operations and logistics, ensuring respect for human rights and sustainability throughout ASOS’ supply chains. ITF will support ASOS in its HRDD policy design, the identification, avoidance and mitigation of risk, and the determination of remedies if rights are violated.

ASOS and ITF will also engage with ASOS' brand partners to share resources and educational tools on HRDD relating to transport and logistics.

ITF General Secretary, Stephen Cotton, said: “ASOS has been leading the charge from businesses that demand better protection for people and planet through human rights due diligence. So, we’re delighted to team up with ASOS in order to raise the bar globally for the transport workers who keep our world moving.

“Agreements like this are helping the ITF to shift the dial on the protection of transport workers’ rights. But we can only do this in tandem with pioneering, progressive businesses like ASOS, who are ready to push far beyond the minimum of what’s legally required of them.”

ASOS and the ITF will also work together on climate change and gender equality – key issues affecting transport and logistics workers in both directly operated and subcontracted transport operations in ASOS’ global supply chain.

ASOS Chief Executive Officer, José Antonio Ramos Calamonte, said: “Enhancing the human rights of everyone involved in our value chain – from designing and making clothes, to warehousing, shipping and delivery – has been a core mission for ASOS for close to a decade. Our new agreement with ITF will enable us to take our work even further and extend our action to protecting and improving the human rights of workers in our transport and logistics supply chain, reducing risk and improving supply chain resilience while delivering positive change for the people supporting our business.”

Under the agreement, the following key elements will form the basis of the conduct of HRDD in ASOS’ transport operations and logistics:

• Meeting or exceeding the policies and practises outlined in the ITF Supply Chain Human Rights Principles and the ITF’s Eight Principles for Decent Work in Warehousing, Distribution and Logistics
• A monitoring and compliance mechanism based on worker-centred HRDD approaches, including the ITF’s HRDD Guidance
• Providing for or cooperating in remediation for rights violations, including when appropriate through collective bargaining with the ITF and/or its affiliated trade union members
• Creating an enabling environment for mature industrial relations in ASOS’ own operations and supply chains; where possible, granting the ITF and its affiliates access to transport and logistics suppliers and workplaces within ASOS’ supply chains

In addition, ASOS will consider the ITF as a ‘stakeholder’ for any relevant legislation, as regards the human rights of transport and logistics workers in ASOS’ directly operated and subcontracted supply chain transport operations. ASOS also commits, where possible, to join the ITF in its national and international advocacy for high standards in transport supply chains.

“There’s no doubt that ASOS is leading the way in ensuring rights are protected in the ‘goods not for resale’ (GNFR) part of its supply chain,” added Cotton. “Many businesses are far too slow at prioritising GNFR and what it can mean for protecting millions of workers worldwide from rights abuses. But when a retailer like ASOS takes a lead on this, it sends a clear message for other business to step up to the plate.”

Note: The headline, insights, and image of this press release may have been refined by the Fibre2Fashion staff; the rest of the content remains unchanged.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (RM)