To promote credible and actionable data to be shared between a broad range of industry
actors, Better Work and SLCP have collaborated on the development of Step 1 of CAF v1.4,
including a Law Overlay to support compliance determination with national laws and
international labour standards. Better Work will support the development of overlays for
other countries where Better Work has a programme. Better Work will explore with the ILO
how to support overlay development for non-Better Work countries in the next iteration of
Step 1 of the Tool.
The Law Overlay raises awareness of applicable legal requirements for the facility and
enhances the quality of the final verified assessment report by ensuring that laws and labour
standards are consistently applied and that areas of non-compliance are captured. The Law
Overlay information has been provided by Better Work for the following countries for Step 1
only (you can also access the Law Overlay information offline):
- Bangladesh
- Indonesia
- Vietnam
The Law Overlay is used in the Better Work assessment process, but also available on
Accredited Host platforms (i.e., Higg, FFC). More information on how the Law Overlay
works on each Accredited Host platform can be found at FFC and Higg.
In 2021, the Law Overlay will only be available for select Better Work countries, following
agreement with national constituents. Over time, SLCP will introduce Law Overlays in other
countries. Better Work will support the development of overlays for other Better Work
countries and will explore how to support overlay development for non-Better Work
countries in the next iteration of Step 1 of the Tool. It is important to Better Work and SLCP
that national constituents, along with other industry actors, trust in the Tool and data and see
that their feedback is also incorporated. Once Step 1 of the Tool (under CAF) is optimized
through this initial implementation period, Better Work anticipates it will be more manageable to support updates and scaling of the Tool to other Better Work countries. At that
point, the ILO may be in a position to support development of Law Overlays in non-Better
Work countries, on the condition that such a future version of the Tool (v1.5) reflects its
needs in relation to laws, ILS and social dialogue data.