South China Headwear (Shenzhen) Co. Limited

2024

In 2024, the WRC conducted its investigation of the factory after being informed by the licensee, Vantage Apparel, that an audit conducted under the Sedex 4 program by the auditing company, LRQA, found that South China Headwear had remedied the violations the WRC had previously identified, including the factory’s previous failure to provide workers a weekly rest day.

The WRC’s investigation found that, contrary to the LRQA audit report, South China Headwear continues to commit very serious labor rights violations—most notably its practices of making employees work seven days per week without a weekly day off, having them perform overtime at nearly three times the legal limit, and taking illegal deductions from workers’ wages. Therefore, collegiate apparel still cannot be produced in this factory without violating university codes of conduct. Vantage Apparel has indicated to the WRC that it will not be using South China Headwear as a supplier until these violations are corrected.

2021

The WRC’s investigation found violations of law and university codes of conduct, including excessive overtime and the failure to provide workers even one guaranteed weekly rest day, failure to enroll workers in government social insurance programs, substandard dormitory conditions, and illegal wage deductions.

While the factory has addressed the benefits enrollment and wage deduction issues, the factory has not agreed to fully address the overtime and rest day issues nor the dormitory conditions. The factory says it is not willing to guarantee at least one rest day until 2023, and, while it has cleaned the dormitory, it has not committed to regulate the ambient temperature.

Read More:

• WRC Case Brief: South China Headwear Still in Violation of the Law and University Codes – November 26, 2024
• WRC Assessment of Labor Rights Violations at South China Headwear (China) – December 16, 2021