Response from New Balance

Proposal B3: Eliminate short-term contracting.

New Balance allows temporary contracts to deal with seasonal fluctuations but limits the use of temporary contracts to six months. They do require a clear plan justifying their use. They have not clarified whether contract workers receive the same benefits and salaries as regular workers.

Full response

New Balance strongly discourages the use of temporary and contract labor in our supply chain, and over the last five years has withdrawn from a number of factories where we were unable to change such employment arrangements. Our philosophy is that if a job is permanent, then the worker who does the job should have a permanent contract. We allow temporary employment contracts in specific circumstances where seasonal fluctuations merit seeking temporary help with production. Before allowing supplier factories to hire temporary workers, however, we require that they clearly quantify how many temporary positions they need to create, elaborate the reasons behind the need and why it is unavoidable, and fix the length of the contract to no longer than necessary. We allow temporary contracts for no more than 6 months.

Response Key

The brand claims to implementing all components of this proposal or has agreed to implement them within Play Fair's proposed timeframe.

The brand is currently implementing or has agreed to implement some of the essential components of the proposal but has refused to implement, has overlooked, or has raised issues with one or more important components; or, the brand agrees to implement the proposal but not within Play Fair’s proposed timeframe.

The brand has refused to implement the essential components of the proposal.

The brand has misunderstood or failed to comment on the proposal; or the brand is considering the proposal, but has yet to make a decision.