Hotsprings – Proud to become a full ETI member

We are proud to have been accepted as full ETI members in July this year, after a journey from foundation membership, which saw dramatic upheaval from the impact of Covid-19 across our supply chains worldwide. The extensive guidance and support from ETI and SEDEX memberships have enabled us to maintain our vision and commitment to programs supporting our supply chain partners and workers. 

Hotsprings Australia is a well-recognised business in the fashion apparel industry that designs, sources, and contracts the manufacture of apparel programs for many of Australia’s retailers and house brands. In partnership with P.E Nation and Rebecca Vallance, we supply products Internationally to our retail partners through our extensive online service platform. As a collective business, we are committed to achieving globally recognised ethical and sustainable sourcing practices at all levels of our supply chain.

The implementation of the ETI Base Code  

The ETI Base Code and its principles incorporated into SEDEX SMETA audit programs have given us transparency across all our Tier 1 suppliers, who have been listed in detail on our collective websites — with further additions and reviews to follow in late 2023. 

The use of ETI resources, together with SEDEX systems, has given us the ability to identify our supply chain's major salient issues, allowing us to begin the roll-out of programs together with our supply chain partners. These programs aim to provide mitigation strategies and ongoing improvement alongside remediation projects focused on excessive working hours, the correct level of social insurance payments to workers, workers’ safety and health, and payments of living wages incorporated into audits since March 2022. 

Through ETI’s guidance, we have successfully moved forward with the implementation of various workers’ grievance reporting programs, including a comprehensive third-party operated Workers Voice program. We will continue to work with ETI and SEDEX towards transparent mitigation and remedy programs. 

Partnerships and commitments to ethical and sustainable practices 

Hotsprings was incorporated in 1993 by brothers Ziad and Wassim Gazal, whose experience in the apparel production industry dates to 1973. They worked across all areas in their father's pyjamas and sleepwear factory in western Sydney. Their commitment to ensuring workers’ health, well-being, and safety, which we see today, is built on the principles of sharing success with supply chain partners and workers they have experienced and fostered throughout this time. 

P.E Nation entered a partnership with Hotsprings in 2016, and Rebecca Vallance followed in 2017. These partnerships share commitments to ethical and sustainable practices ranging from tier mapping of supply chains and reviews of the recruitment process to workers’ access to freedom of association and collective bargaining. 

Hotsprings and our Brand partners are committed to transparency across our supply chain based on our current published commitments to ensure that our products and sourcing programs reduce environmental impacts in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Change. 

We look forward to the challenges ahead with confidence. We will continue to work with ETI and SEDEX to ensure that all workers across our supply chain can share our successes at the workplace, allowing them and their families to have decent lifestyles.