Hudson's Bay Co. (Hbc) a Case Study in Ethical Sourcing

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Hudson's Bay Co. (Hbc) A Case Study in Ethical Sourcing 1.0 Corporate Overview & Background Hbc is Canada’s largest diversified general merchandise retailer, with over 580 retail locations and nearly 70,000 employees. Hbc has 1,600 vendors from which they currently source their private label and captive brands. Most of the vendors that manufacture Hbc merchandise are located in China. 2.0 Policy & Program Scope Hbc established the foundation for their ethical sourcing program in 1998, when they established a Code of Vendor Conduct (CVC). Their program has evolved since then into a broader Social Compliance Program (SCP), which was formalized in 2001, containing the CVC and a monitoring and remediation process, the overall goals of which are to improve factory conditions, educate buyers and share industry knowledge. In developing their CVC, Hbc was guided by International Labour Organization (ILO) standards and general social responsibility principles. Their ethical sourcing requirements, as stipulated in the CVC, obligate suppliers to: * meet local, regional and national laws and regulations; * satisfy employment standards (no forced labour, no child labour, no harassment/abuse, freedom of association and collective bargaining, no discrimination, protection of health and safety, betterment of wages and benefits, reasonable work hours and overtime, a dispute resolution process); * satisfy environmental requirements (including adhering to applicable environmental laws and regulations and taking active steps to protect and preserve the environment); and * prevent illegal transshipping by establishing and maintaining programs to document country-of-origin verification. Although the CVC applies to all Hbc’s vendors, their monitoring program, in which they conduct factory audits to determine CVC compliance, focuses on the top vendors
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