This month marks the announcement of a new binding agreement to protect workers’ human rights and combat gender-based violence and harassment. The Central Java Agreement for Gender Justice currently covers 6250 workers in two Indonesian factories that supply collegiate-branded apparel to Fanatics and, through a licensing agreement with Fanatics, to Nike. The workers are represented by four unions: at factory PT Batang Apparel Indonesia, SPN, SPSI, and KASBI, and at factory PT Semarang Garment Indonesia, SPSI.

Following complaints by workers filed in 2022, WSR Network member, independent monitoring body Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) investigated conditions at the two factories owned by Korean firm Ontide. WRC’s investigations documented a deeply entrenched pattern of gender-based violence and harassment. The scope of the problem required not just immediate intervention and access to remedy for factory workers, but a systemic, long-term solution. The WRC worked with four unions representing the workers to develop the initial proposal for the new agreement, which was then negotiated and revised by the unions, supported by the WRC, the Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA), and Global Labor Justice (GLJ).

Voluntary Standards, Audits Fail to Uncover Systemic Abuses

Workers at the two factories, approximately 90% women, described years of harassment on the factory floor, with supervisors sexually assaulting them and demanding favors and gifts to avoid disciplinary action and keep their jobs. The pattern of harassment was so deeply entrenched that even non-supervisory male employees abused what power they had, with mechanics demanding sexual favors or gifts to perform necessary maintenance on sewing machines. 

The factories had undergone multiple labor compliance audits conducted by third-party auditors over the years, but these audits had failed to detect abuses–a pattern that is far too common across industries. 

Global Labor Standards, Worker-led Enforcement

The union-led program includes the following elements:

• Global labor standards on GBVH: The Agreement prohibits all violence and harassment, including GBVH in the world of work, as defined by Convention 190. The Agreement also incorporates other key elements from C190, including an inclusive definition of who is covered by the agreement; recognition that GBVH covers a wide range of behaviors and can result in physical, psychological, sexual, and economic harm; and can occur during or outside of work or can be linked to the workplace. The Agreement puts into practice mechanisms for the unions and management to identify risks and develop policies and practices to address GBVH at the factories and includes a commitment to respect freedom of association.
• Union-management committees leading implementation: The Agreement provides for GBVH Elimination Committees at each factory with equal representation from unions and management and a majority of women members. 
• Worker-led education for full workforce: A training team consisting in large part of factory workers will provide comprehensive training to the full workforce on GBVH and workers’ rights in the workplace.
• Worker Shop Floor Monitors: Based on the Dindigul Agreement’s Worker Shop Floor Monitor program, unions have the right to appoint workers designated as Shop Floor Monitors to serve as part of an Anti-GBVH Task Force to support workers to monitor, report, and remediate GBVH.
• Multi-channel grievance mechanism: The grievance mechanism includes multiple options for workers to report GBVH and seek remediation.
• Anti-retaliation and freedom of association protections: The Agreement provides protections against retaliation for complainants, witnesses, and Shop Floor Monitors. It also recognizes that employer respect for freedom of association is essential to addressing GBVH.
• Fair and timely investigations and remediations of complaints: The Agreement provides for a survivor-centered approach to handling of GBVH cases and fair and timely processes for investigation and remediation. Management’s failure to implement the required remediation may result in a finding of material default and business consequences for Ontide Corporation by Fanatics.
• Global Coordination Dialogue: The Agreement establishes a regular convening of all unions, global labor stakeholders, Ontide, and Fanatics to exchange information about program implementation and resolve any disputes among the parties.

The terms of the agreement will be enforced through Fanatics binding agreements with member universities of the WRC. 

New Java Gender Justice Agreement Builds on Best Practices Across the Field

The Agreement builds on the growing field of binding agreements that are providing meaningful protections for workers. The announcement from the WRC spells out the specifics:

The program also draws on best practices from two enforceable supply chain agreements focused on the rights of women garment workers: the 2019 Lesotho Agreement to End Gender-Based Violence and Harassment and the 2022 Dindigul Agreement. The International Accord for Health and Safety in the Garment and Textile Industry, which brought about vast safety improvements across 1,600 factories in Bangladesh starting in 2013 and is now being implemented in Pakistan, has also demonstrated the effectiveness of such enforceable agreements and surfaced key learnings for the subsequent agreements.

The Agreement complements earlier collective bargaining agreements, including previously negotiated language on GBVH, at the two factories. 

These Agreements, in turn, build on others which came before them, including the Fair Food Program, whose complaint mechanism inspired the one implemented as part of the Lesotho Agreement.  

Too many garment workers around the world are subjected to gender-based violence at work where gender is often entrenched in workplace hierarchies. Younger women workers are often the lowest paid and report to often older male supervisors and managers. This Agreement builds on the legacy of WSR programs combatting gender-based violence and harassment and offers a path to protect more working people around the globe.

PT Batang and PT Semarang workers in trainings to combat GBVH as part of the Central Java Gender Justice Agreement.