Social Responsibility
Fair labor practices & worker rights
We take social responsibility seriously. UW–Madison has contracts allowing hundreds of companies to make products bearing the university’s name or logos. We require transparency in our licensees’ manufacturing process and actively mandate corporate responsibility and performance in licensing applications and renewals.
Our licensed products are made in approximately 2,500 factories in 34 countries worldwide. To meet university standards, brands and suppliers are required to adhere to a code of conduct. The code addresses workers’ wages, working hours, overtime compensation, child labor, forced labor, health and safety, nondiscrimination, harassment or abuse, women’s rights, freedom of association, and full public disclosure of factory locations.
If violations occur, a licensee has the opportunity to correct the problem or have its relationship with the university terminated.
We have a history of working to resolve workers’ rights situations and are proud of our commitment to fair labor practices.
Social responsibility initiatives
UW–Madison:
- is a leading member of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent labor rights monitoring organization, conducting investigations of working conditions in factories around the globe.
- works with Sumerra, a global compliance company that assists brands, factories, and other organizations in creating sustainable supply chain practices.
- maintains a university Labor Codes and Licensing Advisory Committee to advise the chancellor concerning the labor policies and practices of corporations engaged in the manufacture of licensed goods bearing the University of Wisconsin–Madison name and/or logos.