After concerns over labor rights caused Georgetown to indefinitely suspend their contract last January, Lands’ End, Inc., has reached an agreement with a worker rights advocacy group and may resume business with Georgetown as soon as this summer.

Lands’ End agreed on these steps earlier this month in a collaborative effort with the Worker Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association, two independent non-profit organizations that work with universities to monitor working conditions and ensure that workers’ rights are respected at factories where university-sold products are manufactured.

According to Julie Green Bataille, assistant vice president for communications, the Licensing Oversight Committee at the university is reviewing the steps taken by Lands’ End and deciding whether to recommend that Georgetown renew its contract with the company. Depending on the outcome of these discussions, this decision would be made July 1, when the extant contract comes up for renewal.

The LOC had raised concerns earlier this year that had led to the university’s decision to indefinitely suspend its current contract with Lands’ End over labor rights concerns that violated the university’s code of conduct.

Specifically, they charged that garment workers at a Lands’ End-contracted factory in Primo, El Salvador, were blacklisted for union organizing activities.

According to a statement from Lands’ End, the company had agreed to take steps to remedy these concerns, including monitoring the factory for one year, assisting the factory with worker documentation and training its Central American vendors on honoring workers’ freedom of association.

Lands’ End also pledged to support Just Garments, an independently-run factory in El Salvador that upholds values of fair trade and employs many workers who are union members.

“Lands’ End will make a critical contribution to making Just Garments a success and enabling the company to provide secure employment, under good working conditions,” Scott Nova, executive director of the WRC, said in a faxed statement from Lands’ End.

According to Emil Totonchi (SFS ’06) a member of the LOC, the findings of the WRC had prompted universities across the nation to break off their dealings with Lands’ End, which had produced a small amount of special-order apparel sold by the university.

The WRC’s new findings, however, will be key factors in any possible decision by Georgetown to reinstate the contract.

“We trust their assessment on the situation,” Totonchi said.

The LOC was created in 1998, following a sit-in by the Georgetown Solidarity Committee over the apparel licensing policies relating to the Collegiate Licensing Company. Today, the LOC keeps in frequent communication with the WRC and other like organizations to ensure that products bearing the Georgetown name are made under conditions that uphold the university’s code of conduct.

“As a Jesuit institution, we have certain moral obligations,” Totonchi said. “Even as a contributor to the market, we have certain responsibilities to uphold.”