Our Primark Cares strategy

We launched our Primark Cares commitments in 2021, building on our long-standing commitment to responsible sourcing and to push for fair and safe working conditions for workers in our supply chain.

Primark Cares is underpinned by four key elements:   

Driving impact through responsible sourcing

We continue to push for fair and safe working conditions for workers in our supply chain, as set out in our Supply Chain Human Rights Policy. This is underpinned by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Our Supplier Code of Conduct translates our human rights commitments into the expectations we have of our suppliers. It covers workers’ rights such as freely chosen employment, freedom of association, safe working conditions and wages. It also addresses discrimination and prohibits all forms of modern slavery. 

Our Supply Chain Human Rights Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct underpin the work of our Ethical Trade and Environmental Sustainability (ETES) team, which is responsible for managing human rights and environmental due diligence (HRDD) in our supply chain. 

Transparency and traceability

We see transparency as a key enabler of traceability, providing the visibility required to identify all the links in our supply chain for our product. Since 2019, we have published our Global Sourcing Map which covers the tier one factories1 that make our products, in addition to showing the number and gender of workers at each site.

Transparency is a key enabler of traceability and since 2019 we have published our Global Sourcing Map. This covers tier one factories1 that make our products, in addition to showing the number and gender of workers at each site.

1 Tier one factories manufacture finished goods in our supply chain.

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Our Social Impact programmes in our Sourcing Markets

Sourcing countries

  • With Initiative
  • Without Initiative

Our social impact programmes

Gabriela Sargent

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Understanding Risk and Supporting People in Our Supply Chain

We have a large team of more than 130 team members based in key sourcing countries who work closely with our suppliers, factories and other partners to identify and manage risks in our supply chain. Their role includes:

  • carrying out checks and assessments of working conditions in supplier factories including during social audits;
  • identifying and helping suppliers manage and mitigate potential risks to workers’ rights and wellbeing; and
  • supporting suppliers to improve working standards over time

Tier one factories approved to make our products are audited at least once a year against our Supplier Code of Conduct. Social audits are designed to check whether our suppliers are meeting our required expectations on issues like labour rights, child and forced labour, health and safety, discrimination and harassment. Any new factory must also have a satisfactory social audit as part of our onboarding process. No orders are placed until the factory has been audited and approved.

These audits are managed by our teams in sourcing markets, who understand local regulations and are trained to identify risks and support suppliers and factory management to drive workplace improvements. Through this programme, we conducted over 2,468Δ social audits during the calendar year 2024. We bear the full cost of these audits, which are undertaken by Primark or a third-party on our behalf, and most of which are unannounced.

Risk identification and action 

We conduct due diligence to identify risks throughout our supply chain, aligned with industry best practice, in the following ways:

We build risk assessments for every country we source to help identify and understand risks and how we best manage them, including through local stakeholder engagement.   

External stakeholders provide vital information to help us better understand risks in our supply chain, identify vulnerable groups and how we can best support them.

Direct engagement with workers is fundamental to supporting our commitment to decent and safe workplaces. Our local teams speak directly with workers during audits and through our social impact programmes. This enables us to better understand and respond to their workplace needs and experiences.

Workers who make our products have the right to a structurally safe working environment. Our Structural Integrity Programme, established in 2013, helps assess the structural integrity of our suppliers’ factory buildings using criteria which is based on international standards. The programme is currently active in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Cambodia, as well as providing ad-hoc support as needed in other sourcing countries.

We are also a signatory to the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Garment and Textile Industry in Pakistan and the RMG Sustainability Council in Bangladesh.

We value our existing supplier relationships. However, we may need to stop working with a factory or supplier for a number of reasons. These include breaches of our Supplier Code of Conduct, failure to remediate issues related to worker rights or safety, or a change in our sourcing strategy.

Wherever possible, we seek to work with suppliers to improve their practices where appropriate and avoid exit. When exit is necessary, we aim to do so responsibly with a clear process and, where feasible, take steps to mitigate potential negative impacts on workers.

Our approach is aligned with the responsible business conduct laid out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It is also part of our Supply Chain Human Rights Policy and our active membership of Action, Collaboration, Transformation (ACT).

Enhancing grievance mechanisms

Having channels for workers to raise issues is a key part of our Supplier Code of Conduct. We're expanding access to grievance mechanisms, with the aim to improve transparency of issues through our supply chain and then take the appropriate action.

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We expect all Primark-approved factories to have effective grievance mechanisms available to their workers. We also work with third parties, including NGOs, to implement industry-wide grievance mechanisms in some of our sourcing countries.

See more in the People section here
Independent grievance mechanisms in our supply chain
  • Hamary Awaz, Pakistan

We're partnering with global assurance provider LRQA and local organisation Baidarie to make grievance mechanisms available to workers in our suppliers' factories in Pakistan. Hamary Awaz means ‘our voices’ in Urdu.

  • Handshake Workers’ Hotline, China

We're working with local partner INNO to enable the Handshake hotline for workers in factories in our China supply chain.

  • Amader Kotha, Bangladesh 

The Amader Kotha hotline is an independent, industry-wide grievance mechanism running for over 10 years by local NGO partner Phulki, with global assurance provider LRQA. It was set up following the Rana Plaza tragedy to give workers a way to report safety concerns, and it has since evolved into the widespread mechanism it is today. Amader Kotha, which means our voice in Bengali, is running in many of our suppliers factories in Bangladesh.

  • Ungal Kural, India

We launched this pilot programme together with LRQA and Change Alliance this year. Ungal Kural means ‘your voice’ in Tamil.

  • ACT

Through our membership of Action, Collaboration and Transformation (ACT), we support its Dispute Resolution Mechanism. Workers can raise disputes around wages and freedom of association and resolution is co-ordinated across ACT brands, supported by IndustriALL and monitored by the ACT secretariat.

Our grievance mechanisms
  • Tell Us, Global

Any worker or stakeholder in our supply chain can raise concerns with us through this confidential and anonymous channel, available in local languages. Find out more here.

  • Speak Up, Global

We’re committed to providing confidential reporting channels to colleagues at Primark, and third-party stakeholders working with us, so they can report anything they believe to be inappropriate, improper, dishonest, illegal or dangerous. Find out more here. 

We also receive grievances through other channels, including the customer services section of our website, confidential worker interviews during social audits, and workers having direct contact with Primark colleagues and our partner organisations. When issues or grievances are raised, we take steps to investigate thoroughly while protecting the confidentiality of those raising the complaint, and anyone else who might be affected. We do not tolerate any retaliation against those who have raised a grievance or against any affected stakeholders.

Creating Tell Us, a grievence mechanism for our supply chain

In December 2023, we launched Tell Us, a Primark-funded independent channel designed to give workers or stakeholders in our supply chain a way to raise concerns confidentially. Any conversation can be anonymous if desired and in their native language. Tell Us can be reached by phone, web or smartphone app, making it easily accessible to all workers regardless of location.

The programme began in Bangladesh and has now been extended to suppliers in most sourcing countries, covering both resale and non-resale goods. It is designed to complement factory-level grievance systems, trade union channels and independent hotlines like Amader Kotha. We continue to upskill our local teams on how best to support factories in our sourcing markets in strengthening their internal channels for raising grievances.

We are in the process of developing a toolkit on grievance mechanisms, which will guide our ETES teams to support factories locally in strengthening their internal channels for raising grievances. 

Sustainability and human rights governance

We have a comprehensive governance framework for sustainability and ethics at Primark.

Our parent company, Associated British Foods plc (ABF), provides an additional layer of oversight, with material topics discussed with the ABF Group CEO and Board when appropriate and at least annually.

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