Our Commitment to Corporate Responsibility

1. Where we stand today

The Framatics store is a working prototype. It is not trading, nothing on it is licensed, and no payment can be taken through it. Terms and Conditions Section 1 explains that in full and takes priority over anything written here.

That matters on this page more than most, because a responsibility page written by a company that has not yet manufactured anything is a statement of standards, not a report of performance. Read every commitment below as a condition we will hold ourselves and our suppliers to from the first order, not as something already audited and verified.

2. Supporting the newsroom

Every Framatics print begins with work done by a newsroom. Local and student journalism is where most of these front pages come from, and it is the part of the chain least able to absorb having its work reproduced for free.

Our commitment is that a share of the price of every print goes to the newsroom that covered the run, and where the page came from student media, to the students who reported it. Credit on the piece names the publication and, where the byline is known, the journalists.

We will publish the actual share and the actual recipients once agreements are signed. We are not publishing a percentage today, because a number with no signed agreement behind it is marketing rather than a commitment.

3. Licensing at the source

We license front pages through official channels rather than reproducing them without permission. That means agreements with the publisher, and where a school’s name, marks or colours appear, with the school’s licensing office or its licensing agent.

This is the slower route and it is the reason the store is a prototype rather than a shop. It is also the only version of this business worth building. A print that celebrates a newspaper’s work while cutting the newspaper out of it is not a tribute.

If you hold rights in anything shown on the store and want it removed, the takedown route is set out in Terms and Conditions Section 3, and our default is to take material down rather than contest it.

4. How we make things

Prints are made to order. Nothing is produced speculatively, so there is no unsold inventory to discount, warehouse or destroy. This is a deliberate constraint on the business model rather than a sustainability initiative bolted onto it.

Frames use solid hardwood and acid free backing, and glazing is specified to resist fading. The intent is that a piece stays on a wall for decades instead of being replaced, which is the largest single environmental decision available to a framing business.

We ship in recyclable protective packaging. Removing single use plastics from the process is a stated goal and is not finished. Corner protection and moisture barriers are the remaining problem, and we will say so on this page until they are solved rather than quietly claiming otherwise.

5. Materials and sourcing

We prefer paper and board from suppliers who can show chain of custody for the fibre, and hardwood from suppliers who can show the species and the source of the timber. Where a supplier cannot document either, that is a reason not to use them, not a detail to leave unasked.

We will not use a cheaper input that shortens the life of the finished piece. Acid free is not an upgrade tier here, it is the floor, because acidic board is what turns a print yellow in ten years and turns a keepsake into waste.

6. Supplier code of conduct

This code applies to every vendor, manufacturer, printer, framer, contractor, subcontractor and agent involved in producing Framatics products, and to anyone providing services in that production. Where this code and a legal or other requirement differ, the higher standard applies. A supplier may not avoid this code by subcontracting: the primary supplier is responsible for applying it to any subcontractor it uses.

• Employment relationship. Employers shall adopt and follow rules and conditions of employment that respect workers and that at a minimum protect their rights under national and international labour and social security law. Obligations to workers shall not be avoided through excessive use of temporary contracts, subcontracting or apprenticeship schemes.
• Non-discrimination. No person shall be discriminated against in hiring, pay, advancement, discipline, termination or retirement on the basis of gender, race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, nationality, political opinion, social group or ethnic origin.
• Harassment and abuse. Every worker shall be treated with respect and dignity. No worker shall be subject to physical, sexual, psychological or verbal harassment or abuse.
• Forced labour. There shall be no use of forced labour in any form, including prison labour, indentured labour, bonded labour and labour obtained through deception or coercion in recruitment. No worker shall be required to surrender identity documents or pay recruitment fees as a condition of employment.
• Child labour. No person shall be employed below the age of 15, or below the age for completion of compulsory education where that is higher.
• Freedom of association. Employers shall recognise and respect the right of workers to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and shall not penalise workers for exercising it.
• Health and safety. Employers shall provide a safe and healthy workplace, including any accommodation provided to workers. That includes fire protection, safe storage and disposal of chemicals and hazardous waste, structural and electrical safety, personal protective equipment, and adequate lighting, heating, cooling and ventilation. Workers shall have access to sanitary facilities and drinking water at all times. Safety policies shall be communicated to every worker in a language they read.
• Environmental protection. Suppliers shall comply with applicable environmental law, including rules on air emissions, solid and hazardous waste storage and disposal, energy use, and water consumption and discharge. Suppliers are expected to reduce waste, improve energy efficiency and use cleaner production methods over time.
• Hours of work. Employers shall not require more than the regular and overtime hours allowed by the law of the country of employment. The regular working week shall not exceed 48 hours. Workers shall have at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in every seven-day period. Overtime shall be voluntary, shall not be requested on a routine basis, and shall be paid at a premium rate. Other than in exceptional circumstances, regular and overtime hours together shall not exceed 60 hours in a week.
• Compensation. Every worker has a right to pay for a regular working week that meets their basic needs and provides some discretionary income. Employers shall pay at least the legal minimum wage or the prevailing wage, whichever is higher, comply with all legal requirements on wages, and provide benefits required by law or contract. Where pay does not meet that standard, we expect a supplier to work with us on a plan to close the gap rather than to defend the gap.
• Equal treatment. Workers shall receive equal pay, equal benefits, equal evaluation of their work and equal opportunity for advancement regardless of gender. Pregnancy testing shall not be required and workers shall not be pressured to use contraception. Workers taking maternity leave shall not face dismissal, threat of dismissal, loss of seniority or reduction of pay, and shall return to the same role at the same rate. No worker shall be exposed to conditions that endanger their reproductive health.

7. How we intend to hold suppliers to this

A code that nobody checks is decoration. The following is what we intend to do, described as intention because none of it has run yet.

• Every supplier signs the code before the first order, and re-signs annually.
• We ask for the address of the facility that will actually do the work, and for the addresses of any subcontractors. A supplier who will not name the facility does not get the order.
• Where a supplier already holds a credible third-party social compliance audit, we ask for the report and the corrective action plan rather than duplicating the audit.
• Where non-compliance is found, our first step is a corrective action plan with a date. Terminating a supplier removes our visibility and usually costs the workers their jobs, so it is not the automatic response.
• Non-compliance that is severe, that is repeated, or that is not corrected within the agreed time ends the relationship. Forced labour and child labour are terminated on discovery, without a corrective period.

Anyone, including a worker at a supplier, can raise a concern directly with us at framatics.us@gmail.com. We will not require the person raising it to identify themselves, and we will not disclose their identity to the supplier without their agreement.

8. What we do not claim

This clause exists so that the rest of the page cannot be read as implying something it does not say.

• Framatics holds no third-party social compliance accreditation. We are not a member of, affiliated with, or accredited by the Fair Labor Association or any comparable body.
• We have not conducted any factory audit, and no independent monitoring of our supply chain has taken place, because we have no supply chain in operation yet.
• We publish no environmental figures. We have not measured emissions, waste or water use, so we will not estimate them.
• We make no carbon neutral, climate neutral or offset claim of any kind.
• No newsroom revenue share and no licensing agreement is signed as at the date above.

Each of these becomes reportable as it becomes true. None of them will be described here before then.

9. Where we are going

The order of work is licensing first, then suppliers, then measurement. Licensing is what makes the product legitimate, supplier standards are what make it defensible, and measurement is what makes the claims on this page verifiable rather than stated.

This page will be updated as agreements are signed and as we can publish real figures instead of intentions. The date at the top is when it last changed.

10. How to contact us

Questions about anything on this page, requests for a copy of the supplier code, and concerns about conditions at a facility that manufactures for us all go to framatics.us@gmail.com.

Rights holders wanting material removed should follow Terms and Conditions Section 3. Licensing offices who would rather discuss a licence than send a takedown should use the same address, because that conversation is what this prototype was built to start.