Standards of Engagement

1.         Legal Requirements. Suppliers must observe all applicable laws of their country, including laws relating to employment, discrimination, the environment, safety and the apparel and related fields. Moreover, suppliers must comply with applicable United States laws relating to the import of products, including country of origin labeling, product labeling and fabric and product testing. If local or industry practices exceed local legal requirements, this higher standard should be met.

2.         Health and Safety. Conditions must be safe, clean and acceptable throughout all work and residential facilities.

3.    Employment Practices. We will only support businesses that are fair to their employees:

·        Suppliers must pay wages and benefits and provide compensation for overtime consistent with local laws.

·        Suppliers must adopt working hours that do not exceed prevailing local law.  One day in seven should be regularly encouraged as a day off.

·        Suppliers must not use child labor as defined by local law (however, workers must be at least 15 years of age), forced labor or prison labor.

·        Suppliers must not use corporal punishment or other mental or physical disciplinary actions or engage in sexual harassment.

·        We favor suppliers who do not discriminate based upon race, religion, national origin, political affiliation or sex, and who encourage free association and freedom of expression.

4.    Environmental Practice. We favor suppliers who practice environmental protection.

5.                   Ethical Conduct. We will encourage our suppliers to embrace ethical standards in the conduct of their businesses. We will not support or participate in any way in any local, regional or national war or armed conflict in any country in which we do business and will seek to minimize our business risk where conflict exists, emphasizing the safety of our employees and representatives.

6.                   Customs – Trade Partnership against Terrorism (C-TPAT).  All suppliers are required to comply with all C-TPAT guidelines.

If you believe that these Standards of Engagement are not being upheld or if you have any questions regarding these Standards of Engagement, please contact  Reid Hackney, VP-Controller at reid.hackney@dressbarn.com. Your identity will be kept in confidence.