Levi Strauss releases guide to improve factory workers’ health

The Levi Strauss Foundation has released a guidebook to help garment factories improve workers’ health as part of their Worker Well-being Program.

Written in partnership with Meridian Group International, Inc. under the USAID-funded Evidence Project, the ‘Managing Health at the Workplace: A Guidebook’ aims to be a resource and tool for factory managers and draws on real experiences in factories to present a compelling business case for companies to invest in their worker’s health.

The guidebook makes the argument that for every US dollar a company spends on the health of its workers, it sees about a 3 dollar return in benefits like higher productivity, lower staff turnover, and lower absenteeism, and the Levi Strauss Foundation is hoping that the toolkit will help other companies invest in the health of its workers by making the guide public.

“The goal is to help you achieve important business benefits by improving the health of your workers,” says the guidebook. “These benefits do not appear magically. They occur in workplaces where workers’ general health, in addition to safety, is taken seriously as a management interest and function.”

The Managing Health guidebook lays out social benefits to investing in workers, as well as a health scorecard so that factories can assess their health needs and eight how-to modules that work on implementing specific improvements related to self-assessment and action planning, including health of staff, clinic services, and budgeting.

Commenting on offering the guidebook to others in the apparel industry, Levi Strauss and Co president and chief executive, Chip Bergh said: “We are a company that is always looking beyond what we can achieve alone. By partnering and sharing our knowledge, we can create a larger impact. That’s our priority and it gets to the heart of how we do business.”

Image: via Levi Strauss website