UNIQLO is owned by Fast Retailing, which also owns Theory, Helmut Lang, and J Brand, among other brands.

#PAYUP

6-19-20 – UNIQLO agrees to #PayUp for all completed and in-process orders placed prior to the pandemic. The $8.6 billion company is run by CEO Tadashi Yanai, Japan’s richest person and whose net worth is $32 billion.

KEEP WORKERS SAFE

2-11-21 – UNQILO has failed to Keep Workers Safe. The company has not agreed to PayUp Fashion’s demands that brands contribute to the Severance Guarantee Fund for laid-off garment workers and contribute 1% of net revenue towards direct relief for garment workers impacted by the pandemic. Like many other large brands, Fast Retailing (UNIQLO) is a signatory to the ILO Call to Action, which promised eleven months ago to “protect garment workers’ income,” but the Call to Action has to date released a staggeringly insufficient sum of money to garment workers (less than $200 million to just four countries) and is in no way a satisfactory response to this crisis.

GO TRANSPARENT

8-5-21 – In contrast to 61 companies that have already made the commitment so supply chain transparency, UNIQLO (Fast Retailing) has not committed to the Transparency Pledge, which asks brands to publish a list of all their Tier 1 suppliers’ names and addresses, parent company, product made and number of workers. Tier 1 transparency is the absolute lowest bar, and one every brand should now meet. Without transparency, brands can’t be held accountable to their garment makers. UNIQLO thus receives a “NO” under Go Transparent.

SIGN ENFORCEABLE CONTRACTS

9-2-21 – UNIQLO parent company Fast Retailing has signed onto the new enforceable Accord agreement on workplace safety. The agreement meets all of our demands, including individual accountability for brands, an independent Secretariat, and expansion into new countries. Thus, we’ve given UNIQLO the designation of “Brand Meets Some Conditions” for meeting part of this demand. To receive a “Yes” for Sign Enforceable Contracts, UNIQLO will need to overhaul their purchase order contracts to adopt the Buyer Code of Conduct and support a humane pace of production and dignified wages for makers. One of the drivers of workplace safety disasters is brands forcing factories to produce clothing at prices that are too low to support sustainable and ethical production.

8-4-21 – UNIQLO publicly commits to extend and expand the Bangladesh Accord on Fire & Building Safety, agreeing to individual brand accountability, an independent Secretariat to oversee the Accord, and expansion into new garment-producing countries. For their commitment, they get a yellow slash under Sign Enforceable Contracts to indicate they’ve met some conditions of this demand. They are also on the positive side of our Accord Tracker.