Balance employees' work and family to create a family-friendly workplace
——Family Friendly Factory (FFF) Initiative in China's textile and Garment Industry
We believe that textile enterprises should fully consider the actual needs of the majority of female employees in the context of labor resource shortage, fully listen to the opinions of female employees in the formulation of enterprise management system, integrate family-friendly policies into enterprise management, and form a more humane management system and corporate culture. Therefore, in 2019, CFTA issued the "Family Friendly Factory (FFF) Initiative for China's textile and apparel industry", calling on textile and apparel enterprises, brands and stakeholders to cooperate to promote the establishment of a family-friendly enterprise system and jointly promote the high-quality and sustainable development of the industry.
Background:
There are about 20 million people working in China's textile and garment industry, more than 60 percent of whom are women. Most of them are floating people of marriage and childbearing age.
The exclusive breast-feeding rate of infants within six months in China is 29 percent, lower than the world average of 43 percent and the average of 37 percent in low - and middle-income countries, while the rate in small and medium-sized cities is only 23 percent.
In 2016, about 90 percent of rural left-behind children under the age of 16 lived in central and western China, among which Jiangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Anhui, Henan, Hunan and Hubei were the major provinces for migrant workers.
In 2017, the number of children living with their parents receiving compulsory education reached 18.7 million and 15.51 million, respectively, with a total of 34.48 million. Over the past five years, an additional 2.84 million children have lived with their parents in compulsory education, and 5.76 million fewer children have been left behind in rural areas.
In China, where fertility rates continue to fall, raising children is not just a personal affair, but an important social issue. For enterprises, how to provide more powerful support for employees, so that he/she has no worries, physical and mental health, full of energy and enthusiasm to work?

We recommend:
- Businesses can build family-friendly workplaces to:
-Improve employee satisfaction and work efficiency;
- Reduce staff turnover and absenteeism;
- Build a harmonious enterprise atmosphere and improve labor relations;
- Reduce the cost of recruitment, training and other human resources;
- Establish a positive corporate image;
-...
China National Textile And Apparel Council (CNTAC) launched the initiative of "Building Chinese Textile and Garment Industry Family Friendly Factory (FFF)" in early 2019. We welcome domestic and foreign enterprises, brands, international organizations and social organizations to join us and jointly promote the sustainable and high-quality development of employees, enterprises and society inside and outside the textile industry!

Companies can do this:
- Ensuring equal employment rights for female employees, so that women will not lose their jobs and promotion opportunities due to gender, childbirth, breastfeeding and other reasons;
- Establishing and implementing labor protection systems that respect female employees, especially maternity protection;
- Provide convenience and support for nursing women, such as building nursing rooms;
- Provide paternity or childcare leave for male employees;
- Education on family and social responsibilities for male and female employees;
- Allowing employees to take emergency leave to undertake urgent family care obligations;
-Provide enrollment support for the compulsory education of the children of the accompanying employees;
- Provide childcare and care services for employees, such as nursery, summer classes and after-school care.
Brands can do this:
-Promote and advocate the concept of equal employment and family-friendly policies in the supply chain;
-Carry out awareness promotion and capacity building of supply chain enterprise management;
-Support supply chain enterprises to carry out staff development capacity building;
- Provide necessary resource support for the implementation of family-friendly policies of supply chain enterprises;
- Integrate key elements that promote gender equality and employee development into supplier selection system;
- To promote good supply chain family-friendly management cases.
International/social organizations can do this:
- Strengthening comprehensive advocacy of family-friendly policies;
- Establishing a multi-stakeholder advocacy system involving government, private sector, social organizations and funding agencies;
- Carry out innovative funding projects and establish a relationship with partner organizations to accompany and grow;
- Build an interactive platform to enhance communication and exchange among stakeholders;
- Promote research and academic discussion on related issues;
- Cooperate with relevant national policies, carry out multi-stakeholder cooperation projects, and promote the implementation of policies.