Fast Retailing

Fast Retailing has a CEO-level a commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment and together with UN Women has signed a global partnership to champion women’s rights and empowerment in the apparel industry. The company has also established a gender strategy that goes beyond general support for diversity and inclusion and has assigned specific individuals to be responsible for gender equality. It also engages both employees and external stakeholders on gender-specific issues, more specifically around compensation and benefits and violence and harassment, which has helped shape the company’s policies and practices. For example, feedback from UN Women impacted a management training programme that will help partner factories in Bangladesh, China and Vietnam to identify local gender-based challenges that women factory workers face. However, the company does not disclose specific, time-bound targets related to gender.

The company’s grievance mechanism allows for reporting beyond the direct supervisor of the aggrieved party and is available in relevant languages. However, the mechanism does not support the additional needs of women employees, for example by ensuring confidentiality and non-retaliation or by allowing anonymous reporting and verbal submission of grievances via a telephone line. While supply chain workers do not have access to the company’s own grievance mechanism to raise complaints, Fast Retailing requires suppliers to have their own grievance mechanisms in place that allow workers to confidentially communicate concerns to management and the worker representative without the risk of retaliation and to provide effective remediation.

The company screens for gender-related issues among suppliers as part of its audit processes, including sexual harassment and discrimination against women based on their pregnancy or marital status. Furthermore, the company requires suppliers to take corrective action if these issues are identified.

Limited information is available regarding whether Fast Retailing recognises the fair representation of women across its workforce, particularly in higher ranking positions. There are no women on the board of directors or in senior executive positions, and the company does not disclose the proportion of women among its senior management. Though 36% of the company’s middle management positions are held by women, the gender composition of its overall workforce or across occupational functions is not publicly available, neither is the gender breakdown of the company’s absenteeism or turnover rates.

Fast Retailing offers professional development programmes with specific support for women through initiatives such as the Career Support Program for Women Store Managers which is an opportunity for Uniqlo’s women store and business managers to engage with outside experts to share insights. It also runs the Waikiki (Waku Waku Iki Iki) project, which brings together women employees raising children to offer each other mutual support. In addition, Fast Retailing runs a group-wide career support programme for women candidates for manager positions and conducts training to help management personnel recognise and dispel unconscious biases.

Fast Retailing supports its suppliers in offering professional development opportunities to women workers through its partnership with UN Women which comprises a management training programme to further diversity in the company and its supply chain. While Fast Retailing does not require its suppliers to have recognition agreements with local trade unions, the company expects suppliers to respect the rights of workers to establish and join organisations as well as prohibits intimidation, harassment, retaliation and violence against trade union members and representatives.

No information was found regarding how Fast Retailing specifically addresses the global gender pay gap to ensure its women employees around the world receive fair compensation. The company allows women employees to take leave during pregnancy and after childbirth, though this is unpaid and the length of time off is not disclosed. These women do, however, receive a birth allowance and a one-time payment upon giving birth to support their unpaid care burden. Moreover, women employees can work fewer hours as well as receive exemptions from overtime, holiday or late-night work for up to one year after childbirth, encouraging their return to work after leave. The company only offers one day of secondary carer leave to employees whose partner has given birth and does not specify whether this is paid or unpaid. Regarding other family-friendly benefits, Fast Retailing offers some of its employees childcare and nursing care leave arrangements, in addition to flexible working hours and locations.

In the supply chain, Fast Retailing considers fair compensation by requiring suppliers to extend formal contracts to their workers and to ensure that their subcontractors do the same. It is also an accredited member of the Fair Labor Association, as the company aims for suppliers to pay their workers a living wage that goes beyond covering basic needs. However, Fast Retailing only requires its suppliers to pay their workers the legal minimum wage. No information was found regarding whether suppliers are required to provide their workers with paid carer leave or other family-friendly benefits.

Fast Retailing provides its employees with access to mental health services and offers women employees optional leave if they have difficulty working because of severe menstrual symptoms. However, no details were found regarding whether the company covers additional costs related to women employees’ maternal or sexual and reproductive health needs.

In the supply chain, the company requires suppliers to provide access to drinking water and monitors their compliance. However, no details were found regarding how the company supports the specific health, safety and hygiene needs of women workers, such as providing toilets separated by gender and adequately lit factory facilities, or whether it collects data on the gender composition of workers’ injuries, fatalities, turnover or absenteeism rates. Moreover, Fast Retailing has not made a public commitment to gender-responsive health information and services in its supply chain regarding maternal, mental, and sexual and reproductive health.

Fast Retailing seeks to prohibit violence and harassment in the workplace, including sexual harassment, by eliminating sexual language and behaviour as well as preventing those in positions of authority from harassing or intimidating others. Furthermore, the company offers training for managers on violence and harassment and how to deal with reports or instances of bullying or harassment. However, no details were found regarding the company’s effective remedy to violence and harassment grievances in the workplace, such as not requiring private arbitration or silencing agreements.

In the supply chain, Fast Retailing requires its suppliers to prohibit any forms of abuse – physical, verbal or psychological – or any forms of harassment, including sexual. It also requires that the violence and harassment policy be made available in relevant local languages. Moreover, the company has piloted several training programmes on the issue for managers in Bangladeshi factories.

Fast Retailing also supports its suppliers to prevent violence and harassment through its own grievance and country risk analysis, as a result of which it determined that remedies and preventive measures on harassment issues were required in partner factories in Bangladesh. The company piloted a project to establish a complaints committee in some Bangladeshi factories, though no details were found regarding the remediation of violence and harassment concerns in the supply chain.

Fast Retailing has made a public commitment to address how gender is portrayed in its marketing campaigns and is listed as a member of the Unstereotype Alliance, a platform that seeks to eradicate harmful gender-based stereotypes in media and advertising content. Further, in 2019, Fast Retailing’s Human Rights Committee advised its marketing section to prevent discriminatory language in advertising.

Fast Retailing primarily drives support for gender equality and women’s empowerment in the communities where it operates through its partnership with UN Women as well as the Japanese Organisation for International Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP), which aims to advance empowerment for all women and girls. The company also offered clothing donations to women affected by domestic violence and hosted the Be Heard programme that focused on empowering its women customers.

Fast Retailing has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by donating isolation gowns and masks to various organisations, such as medical facilities in Japan and globally. The company is also adhering to certain rules relating to store operations. These include asking employees to wear masks, gargle and regularly wash and sanitise their hands, measuring employees’ temperature, thoroughly cleaning the premises and implementing social distancing practices among both customers and employees.