Assessments are conducted at factories based on the LABS Standards. They provide insight into the safety issues in a factory. One of the LABS associated inspection firm visits the factory to evaluate issues with regards to fire, electrical and structural safety, and suggests corrective action plans (CAP) to guide remediation in the instances where the measures in place fall short.
Through the associated safety training firms, LABS enhances the ability of OHS committees, staff members and factory safety personnel to flag up and raise awareness of structural, electrical and fire safety issues.
We offer factories four safety training levels, dependant on their safety proficiency check and LABS assessment: Basic Safety Training, Advanced Safety Training Level 1, Advanced Safety Training Level 2 and Refresher Safety Training.
We introduced the refresher training for factories in the third year of their association with LABS.
It amalgamates key elements from the first three training programs with a detailed factory tour on issue detection and remediation, and establishing safety management systems that will help the factory eventually graduate from the program.
The CAP identifies areas of mitigation based on issues identified during a factory’s assessment. The factory then works on the plan to remediate the issues in line with LABS Standards.
The remediation progress is monitored via an IT platform for consistent follow-up. LABS Factory coordinators also visit the factories to review the progress made and actively monitor the factories’ needs in order to facilitate their efforts to implement CAPs.
LABS Factory successfully graduates from the program on completing all remediation activities and fulfilling criteria such as conducting safety trainings. Factory triggers graduation by confirming completion of all elements. The Factory Coordinators reviews checklist and schedules Graduation Verification Visit to factory with Inspection Firms that conducted CAP closure visit. Graduation verification checklist adherence is conclusive for issuing gradation letter and the certificate to the factory.
A toll-free workers helpline and Chat option is provided for factories linked with the program in India, Vietnam and Cambodia. Workers can anonymously report safety issues, primarily related to structural, fire and electrical safety.
When safety issues are reported on the helpline the case is shared with the factory, which then comes back to LABS with its remedial actions. LABS Factory Coordinators check the remediation action during upcoming visits. If the action is deemed sufficient the issue is marked ‘Resolved’ from LABS’ side. Quite a few non-LABS calls (i.e. not related to safety issues) are also reported on the helpline. These cases are shared with the factory or brand and marked ‘Closed’ as per LABS procedure.