EcoVadis, business sustainability ratings and solutions provider, launched Worker Voice Connect, a new digital grievance mechanism offering workers to anonymously report on workplace conflict, allowing companies to monitor and address human rights issues in their global supply chains.
As per EcoVadis, the new solution focuses to address a gap that exists in current grievance mechanisms, which operates on issues such as corruption or enterprise governance, risk and compliance, rather than working conditions or human rights, and exclude on-the-ground workers that may be hesitant to use them or unaware that they exist, with a tool that allows workers to speak up at any time, and provides open, ongoing dialogue between workers, suppliers and companies.
Characteristic qualities of the new solution include anonymous two-way communication, accessibility through multiple channels such as WhatsApp, QR codes or the web and without requiring corporate apps or smartphones, support for 20 languages, access for suppliers and buyers to detailed dashboards to track cases and overall program performance, and support for data sharing across supply chains.
Executive Statement
According to Pierre-Francois Thaler, Co-CEO and Co-founder of EcoVadis, Grievance and whistleblower channels have been around for decades, but often only for direct employees. They rarely reach workers in the supply chain, leaving organizations blind to potential risks and limiting workers’ access to remedy. They are experiencing increased global demand for labor and human rights solutions as new due diligence regulations and international labor standards increase scrutiny on global enterprises. Worker rights is an urgent ethical, financial and regulatory matter, and companies that fail to act will face really financial, reputational and legal consequences.
