What is the Fair Labor Association?
The Fair Labor Association (FLA) with its headquarters in Washington, D.C., USA is a coalition of non-governmental organizations, companies, universities, schools and other interest groups. Its goal is to improve work conditions world wide. The basis for its requirements are the core labour standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO). A member company must commit to implement the FLA guidelines and introduce a control system along the entire supply chain. FLA has a management board of 19 persons in total. Including 6 representatives from the bigger as well as the smaller labels, 6 representatives from universities, 6 representatives from non-governmental organisations and 1 independent chairperson.

Monitoring
The FLA considers itself an independent control organization, which issues regular controls for its member companies once every year through Independent External Monitoring Auditors. The FLA Website makes all results open to the public, which allows the process to be as transparent as possible and gives it a greater credibility. All member companies are measured in terms of how thoroughly they follow FLA guidelines. Once a member manages to meet all requirements it will be awarded the status of an accredited member for 3 years. During this time unannounced controls are mandatory. After a period of three years it will need another control visit to again decide on the status of an accredited member.

External as well as internal controls are mandatory for FLA company members:

Internal control
To ensure that all FLA guidelines are being followed, it is important that member companies do monitor a certain percentage of their suppliers themselves. They must review reports, control workplace safety and healthcare etc., and interview workers and employees. Additionally to these interviews workers and employees must have the opportunity to contact the contract company to report abuse directly, in private and without any fear of negative consequences. After the results of internal controls have been evaluated, steps must be taken by the respective supplier to introduce improvements, which in turn will be monitored by the member company.

External control
Every member company must provide a complete list of its suppliers as well as an individual company profile, and guarantee that its suppliers cooperate with the FLA auditors. Additionally the member company agrees to work together with the FLA concerning all post-processing after control visits and to provide additional necessary information. Immediately after receiving the audit report by the FLA the company must set up a plan to resolve issues together with the respective supplier in a timely manner and ensure that this plan is implemented in a sustainable way. 60 days after starting the implementation of the new plan FLA demands a report about all established improvements and a timetable about all to be established measures. Furthermore, FLA demands to be informed once the plan for resolving issues has been successfully implemented. In case the supplier is unable or unwilling to follow FLA guidelines the cooperation cannot be pursued further.

Important to know
Products of the member companies are not labelled with the FLA Logo.

Conclusion
The Fair Labor Association is due to is strict requirements and rigorous controls as well as its transparency an especially credible label on the social front. As a social standard is does not take any environmental concerns into account.