Verité Fact Sheet
About Verité
Founded in 1995, Verité is an independent non-profit organization uniquely positioned to meet growing business and consumer concerns about human rights in global production.
We have pioneered a new model of working directly with companies and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to address human rights and labor abuses in supplier factories around the world. Our constructive approach engages corporations in the design and implementation of training and remediation programs both at the company level and in the factories where products are manufactured.
The programs we design result in improvements in working conditions and improvements in productivity and brand reputation
Services
Verité has developed an innovative model of monitoring independent factories that involves linking with local humanitarian and advocacy organizations to interview workers and report on workplace conditions. We provide training programs to enhance the capacity of multinationals, factories and local organizations to respect labor rights.
Our organization has a multi-source funding structure to ensure our independence and the credibility of our findings. This funding stream ensures our objectivity and balance in reporting on factory conditions.
Verité has experience in the following industry sectors:
• Apparel
• Footwear
• Agriculture
• Food Processing
• Electronics
• Call/Support Centers
• Printing
• Toys
Pioneering
a new model of Corporate Cooperation
Since 1995 we have been strengthening the capacity of human rights and women's organizations by training them to monitor factories and conduct remediation programs in 65 countries. By working with Verité, these organizations are able to expand their capabilities into new areas as they monitor the local effects of globalization and develop response strategies to alleviate the negative effects on workers, their families and their communities.
Track Record
Since 1995 Verité has:
- Completed over 1,300 comprehensive factory evaluations in 65 countries. We have also conducted 32 factory-based trainings for management and workers in Asia, the Caribbean, and Middle East. Our data and findings document the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of workers as part of an ever-growing web of consumption led by US and European corporations and consumers.
- Affected the lives of 150,000 workers by improving working conditions in factories, reducing overtime hours, and delivering legally-owed back wages and benefits to workers.
- Developed education programs for approximately 500 underage workers and women in factories in China and Vietnam.
- Advised the governments of the U.S., Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Philippines and European Parliament with recommendations to improve their labor law legislation and protections for workers.
- Contributed to the growing movement in support of transparency by issuing public reports of our findings for selected companies, as well as the university movement against sweatshops.
- Created the Verité Summer Internship Program, which sends college students to Asia and Latin America to work in human rights organizations for eight weeks.
Team
Our management team is comprised of individuals based overseas with backgrounds in organizations such as Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty International. Our Board of Directors comes from the Social Venture Network, international development and social research communities.
