On January 24, 2015, the Textile Union of El Salvador filed a Third Party Complaint alleging that the F&D factory maintained a system of production goals that implicitly required workers to work hours beyond their normal work schedules for which they were not compensated at overtime rates and moreover that the monetized production goals failed to reflect increases in the minimum wage approved by the government of El Salvador.
FLA Participating Company Hanesbrands, which sources from F&D, agreed to carry out an assessment of the factory’s production incentives and compensation while an independent investigator selected by the FLA would conduct an assessment of the factory’s hours of work system and payment of overtime.
The two assessments identified a number of practices at  F&D regarding hours of work, payment, and production bonus system that were not sufficiently clear and/or not well understood by workers. The remediation plan put in place by the factory is intended to address these issues and includes an ongoing dialogue table between labor and management chaired by an external mediator. The FLA recommends that this mediator continue to chair the dialogue table until workers and management are able to conduct the dialogue without involvement by a third party.
