Many consumers often want to know basic facts about Liz Claiborne's efforts to ensure that its products are made under decent and fair working conditions. Below, please find some of the most commonly asked questions followed by our answers:

Do workers who manufacture Liz Claiborne's products know their rights?

Educating workers about their rights is essential-the better they understand their rights, the easier they will find it to speak up to defend them. That's why suppliers must post our Standards of Engagement in workers' native languages. This strict set of standards prohibits child labor, forced labor and all forms of harassment or abuse, in addition to ensuring workers are all paid the minimum wage, setting limits on overtime hours and requiring employers to honor workers' rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

And that's why we are also reaching out to on-the-ground human rights groups and other local organizations to support the education process. Because these groups know the local languages and cultures, they will be able to help us make sure workers understand their rights.

How does Liz Claiborne enforce its Standards of Engagement?

At Liz Claiborne, we know that high standards are only the beginning. It requires a serious commitment in order to make meaningful progress in the effort to improve working conditions. That's why we use a wide variety of enforcement mechanisms, including the following:

• Spot Inspection — Liz Claiborne Inc. executives regularly conduct both scheduled and unscheduled spot inspections of contractors' factories.
• Training — Because a successful inspection depends upon knowing where and what to look for, our internal compliance auditors that conduct on-site visits must attend training in how to identify workplace problems.
• Human Rights Questionnaire — Liz Claiborne Inc. internal auditors fill out a comprehensive human rights questionnaire for every supplier. The questionnaire requires our auditors to fill out an assessment of each factory to provide detailed information on its compliance with the Liz Claiborne Workplace Code of Conduct. This strict set of standards prohibits child labor, forced labor and all forms of harassment or abuse, in addition to ensuring workers are paid the minimum wage, setting limits on overtime hours and requiring employers to honor workers' rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
• Education — Liz Claiborne Inc. requires contractors to post our Standards, written in appropriate local languages, where workers can easily see them, such as factory common areas. However, we are aware that workers need more than to see our code of conduct posted they need to understand what their rights are. We are currently exploring various ways to facilitate this, and finding the best approach by country.
• Independent Monitoring — In order to better determine if suppliers are upholding our Standards, we implemented independent monitoring projects in Guatemala and El Salvador. We learned things from these two programs which has helped us improve our own internal monitoring programs. Now, by participating in the FLA monitoring program, we are able to expand the independent monitoring concept to more countries, sometimes combining efforts with other participating companies.