139 BE FAIR138 BE FAIR MONCLER GROUP 2022
DIMENSION DEFINITION 6 Remuneration system A balanced wage structure between base
wage, additional bonuses and benefits. A wage that reflects different levels of educa- tion, skill and professional experience, and that remunerates individual and collective per- formance. A wage that complies with the regulations on social insurance payments and paid holi- days and that does not include disciplinary wage sanctions.
7 Communication A wage on which workers receive sufficient and social dialogue information in advance (through an individual
work contract), during the production process (through regular communication channels) and at the time of the wage payment (through a detailed payslip). A wage that is negotiated individually (with the employer only) and collectively in particular through collective bargaining between the em- ployer and the workers representatives who are freely accepted in the company.
8 Wage discrimination A system based on equal wages for equal work and wage disparity that does not lead to wage discrimination and
does not generate unjustified, too high and too rapidly growing wage differentials within the company.
9 Real wages A wage that grows at least in proportion to rising prices.
10 Wage share A wage that grows in proportion to the compa- ny s sales and profits and does not lead to a fall in wage share compared to the company s performance growth.
11 Wage cost A wage whose progression does not lead to a dramatic reduction in wage costs within total production costs and as a percentage of employment.
12 Work intensity, A wage that progresses along with changes in technology intensity at work, technological contents and and up-skilling the evolving skills and tasks of the labour force.
In general, the Group is committed to work with all players in its supply chain, specialised associations and other strategic partners to increase awareness and understanding of the issue of fair wages.
ANIMAL WELFARE E TRACEABILITY Down is one of the most important raw materials for Moncler. For this reason, all suppliers are not only required to meet the highest quality standards, but also to act responsibly and with full respect of animal welfare.
To ensure animal welfare, Moncler demands and verifies that its down suppliers comply with the strict requirements laid down in the Moncler technical DIST Protocol (Down Integrity System & Traceability), available on the page dist.moncler.com. The DIST protocol, first implemented in 2015, regulates farming standards, animal welfare, down traceability and technical quality. Moncler only purchases down that is DIST-certified.
Among the basic requirements that must be respected across the entire supply chain:
down must be exclusively sourced from farmed white geese and as a by-product of the food chain
no form of live-plucking or forced feeding is permitted.
The protocol, drafted taking into consideration the peculiarities of the Moncler s supply chain, is the result of open and constructive dialogue within the scope of a multi-stakeholder forum set up in 2014, which considered the expectations of the various stakehold- ers to ensure a scientific and holistic approach to the topic of animal welfare and product traceability. The forum, chaired by a professor of Management at the Ca Foscari University of Venice with specif- ic knowledge and expertise in sustainability issues, consists of Mon- cler people, experts from the Department of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Milan, the Polish National Institute of Animal Hus- bandry Koluda Wielka, Compassion in World Farming (a non-gov- ernmental organisation dedicated to the welfare of farm animals), representatives from certification and consulting companies (SGS, Control Union, IDFL and KPMG), and, starting in 2023, following the inclusion in the DIST protocol of the modules on human rights and environmental compliance, representatives of international organi- sations specialised in these issues. From the belief that dialogue is a source of improvement, Moncler organised the ninth multi-stake- holder forum in March 2023. At the forum, the new updates to the Protocol aimed at further developing the document were discussed, which also includes three specific modules on human rights, the en- vironment and the DIST down recycling procedure.
The DIST Protocol assesses animal welfare from an inno- vative perspective. In addition to the traditional approach that fo- cuses on the environment in which the animal lives (in terms of availability of food and water, adequate space for movement, etc.), the Protocol, in line with the European Commission guidelines, al- so assesses welfare by carefully observing the animal through the so-called Animal-Based Measures (ABMs)5. ABMs allow a direct assessment of an animal s condition, by observing how geese re- spond to the different factors of the environment in which they live (outcome approach). The DIST Protocol features nine ABMs includ- ing, among others, those designed to identify unusual behaviours or aspects such as plumophagia6, dislocated or broken wings, feather irregularities, abnormal beak colour.
These situations can be associated with environments in which welfare of geese is compromised by various factors, includ- ing high animal density, inadequate diet, lack of pasture or inappro- priate animal management.
Another important, innovative indicator introduced in the Pro- tocol is the evaluation of the human-animal interaction through the response to a specific test (the HAR test, Estep and Hetts, 1992).
All down suppliers must strictly comply with the Protocol s re- quirements to ensure raw material traceability, animal welfare and the highest quality at every link of the down supply chain. To verify compliance with the principles set out in the Protocol, Moncler con- stantly carries out strict field audits throughout its almost entirely vertically-integrated down supply chain. The down supply chain in- cludes different types of entities: geese farms; slaughterhouses where animals are exclusively slaughtered for meat production and where down is subsequently collected; and companies responsi- ble for washing, cleaning, sorting and processing the raw material. Façon manufacturers who realise the finished products downstream the down purchasing process also have to be taken into account.
To ensure the utmost impartiality of audits: audits are commissioned and paid directly by Moncler and
not by the supplier the certification process is carried out by a qualified third-par-
ty entity, whose auditors are trained by veterinarians and zoo- technicians of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Milan
the certification authority is in turn audited by another ac- credited external certification body.
In particular, in 2022 136 third-party onsite audits were carried out, verifying all entities in the supply chain. Where auditors found minor non-compliances, farms were required to take timely correc-
5 Animal-Based Measures are indicators that can be directly observed on animals and that assess their actual conditions in relation to their ability to adapt to specific farming environments. These measures include phys- iological, pathological and behavioural indicators.
6 Plumophagia is an abnormal behaviour in avian species that consists of pecking the feathers of another bird or tearing them with the beak.