During the past few years several reports, articles and most recently a list published by the United States Department of Labor on September 2009 and updated in December 2010 have denounced the use of children and forced labor in the harvesting of cotton in Uzbekistan. Child Labor and Forced Labor practices are critical violations of the Company’s Code of Conduct and will not be tolerated under any circumstances.
As a company committed to the respect for human rights, we require that all our business partners refrain from purchasing cotton directly from Uzbekistan or knowingly sourcing yarn or textiles from vendors that source cotton from Uzbekistan, when manufacturing any of the Company’s family of products. In addition, we require that all our business partners take the necessary measures to maintain records identifying the origin of the cotton used in the manufacturing of all our products and have the records available for audit.