[...]

BESTSELLER was first contacted about concerns for FoA at Dekko Design in November 2022. Con-cerns about union busting at Dekko were raised by IndustriAll, a partner of ours in the Action, Col-laboration, Transformation (ACT) Initiative. In Bangladesh, ACT members support a joint dispute resolution mechanism (DRM).

Upon receipt of this notification from IndustriAll, on behalf of the Bangladesh Garment and Indus-trial Workers Federation (BGIWF), as per DRM protocols, BESTSELLER collaborated with peer brands sourcing from the factory, and engaged with IndustriAll and BGIWF on resolving the case.

BESTSELLER's in-country social and labour team conducted and participated in numerous in-per-son investigations and interviewees with affected workers and current employees at the factory. The investigation found significant concerns regarding respect for FoA. The results of these investi-gations were discussed in-person with the BGIWF and supplier management team. Workers were reinstated and settlements were arranged in the summer of 2023. To address the need to strengthen worker participation and mitigate the risk of FoA being compromised in future, peer brands - as per the DRM procedures, facilitated negotiations between the factory and the BGIWF that resulted in an MoU signed between the rights holders in December 2023.

We received confirmations from the BGIWF that they had agreed on the solution, which had been mutually agreed by both the parties. Following the conclusion of the MoU, our team was thanked by BGIWF for our role in resolving the issue.

[...]