Fair Labor Association (FLA) is a non-profit multi-stakeholder initiative comprizing universities, civil society organizations and businesses promoting human rights at work, in particular in global supply chains.
Its Board comprizes representatives of companies, universities and civil society organizations (CSOs), including trade unions.
Companies that join FLA commit to upholding the FLA Workplace Code of Conduct and the Principles of Fair Labor and Responsible Sourcing, which are largely based on ILO standards. They also commit to establishing internal systems for monitoring workplace conditions and maintaining the code’s standards throughout their supply chains. FLA conducts independent audits of factories linked to FLA affiliates, in order to evaluate compliance of all code elements and verify companies' internal compliance efforts.
The cross-border social dialogue component
One important component of FLA is its CSO Caucus - a body that ensures a CSO voice in FLA’s strategy, programme development and decision-making process. Today, one representative of a Bangladeshi union and two Turkish unions’ representatives sit in the CSO Caucus.
In line with the FLA’s multi-stakeholder approach, the Board members (representing the three Caucuses — businesses, universities, and CSOs) are mandated to inform and vote on the Board decisions, provide input on FLA policies and procedures, and propose and advocate for new or improved procedures that contribute to the improvement of workers’ rights. The term of each board member is three years. Today, the Bangladeshi union representative sits on the Board as one of the six CSO Caucus members, alongside six representatives of companies and six representatives from North American universities.