13.17.1 - 3-3,14.18.1- 3-3,3-3 - Management of material topics: Child Labor

Child labor has significant impacts on the economy, environment, and people, both negative and positive. Child labor can perpetuate cycles of poverty and hinder economic development. Child labour results in under-skilled, unqualified workers and jeopardizes future improvements of skills in the workforce. Child labor often occurs in industries with poor environmental practices, leading to environmental degradation. Children involved in labor are often subjected to exploitation, which can negatively impact their health and safety. Eliminating child labor can lead to economic growth by creating a more educated and skilled workforce, and improving the quality of life for children and their families.

Milliken understands that certain operations and suppliers in certain regions are at significant risk fo incidents of child labor. Even if Milliken does not directly cause or contribute to a negative impact, then Milliken's operations, products, or services may be indirectly linked to a negative impact. Given the complexity of our global supply chains, child labor cases may exist in deeper tiers of our supply chains. We must continue to expand our due diligence efforts to reduce any negative impacts on child labor.

We exercise our influence by conducting our business operations in ways that seeks to respect, protect, and promote the full range of human rights, as described in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labor Organization's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Although we believe that governments around the world bear primary responsibility for safeguarding human rights, we acknowledge the corporate responsibility to respect human rights articulated in the United Nations' Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. To this effect, Milliken is a member of the United Nations Global Compact, which includes Principle 5 that businesses should uphold the effective abolition of child labour, and reports on progress annually. We comply with the laws and regulations of the countries in which we operate while simultaneously conducting our business ethically and sustainably. We encourage the promotion of human rights throughout our policies, standards and business practices including through our Code of Conduct, Supplier Code of Conduct, Global Human Rights Policy statement, and Modern Slavery Statement.

We enforce a variety of commitments and policies through document verification, internal and external audits conducted by our human resources and our global security team respectively, and ongoing associate training to monitor for child labor risks in the workplace. We adhere to a strategy that emphasizes risk assessment, and we perceive a higher level of risk in our upstream supply chain. However, this does not mean the downstream supply chain is risk-free. The greatest risk in our upstream supply chain lies with our raw material suppliers. We use the Corruption Perceptions Index to identify suppliers located in countries with high corruption and higher risk of forced labor. Index results, audit reviews, and documentation verification are reviewed by our sourcing team and any concerns or red flags are escalated to senior management and the legal department for review and further action, where appropriate.

In 2024, we continued use of a cloud-based sustainability platform that combines supplier assessments and ongoing social media monitoring. The Human Rights and Labor Questionnaire requires suppliers to review and verify their commitment to combating forced and child labor, eliminating discrimination, and ensuring good working conditions, including appropriate working hours and wages for the work performed. In 2024, we also joined Sedex to implement comprehensive Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA) including onsite audits for certain direct suppliers. This social audit methodology assesses a company's ethical business practices across various aspects including labor standards, health and safety, environmental impacts, and business ethics, allowing us to evaluate and improve our supplier due diligence. We continue to build our data and monitoring systems to identify any incidents of forced labor, child labor and human rights concerns in our supply chain.

Our suppliers also affirm and comply with Milliken's Supplier Code of Conduct. We reserve the right to terminate a supplier relationship should a risk of child labor become apparent. 

We track incidents tracked as part of our Helpline metrics, training completion statistics, third-party diligence systems, and engagement and risk assessments completed by our Global Human Rights Taskforce. We will continue to build our data and monitoring systems to identify any incidents of forced labor, child labor and human rights concerns in our supply chain. We are committed to providing or supporting access to remedy when we find or become aware of adverse human rights impacts within our company or value chain. We provide associates and all external stakeholders access to Milliken's Helpline, a third-party managed communication channel, for raising grievances and seeking remedy.

We engage with governmental associations, industry work teams, non-profits, our suppliers, our associates, and on-going review of risk reports and global reporting standards on child labor. We are committed to providing and supporting access to a remedy when we find or become aware of adverse human rights impacts within our company or our value chain. We provide associates and external stakeholders access to Milliken's Help Line, a third-party managed communication channel, for raising grievances and seeking remedy.