A multi-stakeholder call to action for companies to address violence and harassment in their supply chains

The context
Violence and harassment at work is a pervasive global issue. The International Labour Organization’s (ILO) global survey estimates that at least one in five people have experienced violence and harassment at work. Violence and harassment in work contexts can take many forms and different degrees of severity, including physical, psychological, sexual, and gender-based violence and harassment, and can be a single incident or take place repeatedly. Women and girls in particular experience these human rights impacts differently and often disproportionately compared to men.
After decades of advocacy by women’s rights organisations, trade unions and labour rights organisations, in June 2019 the ILO adopted the Violence and Harassment Convention (C190), establishing the first international labour standard to provide a common framework to prevent, remedy and eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work. For the first time in international law, this convention includes the specific recognition of the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, and sets out the obligation to respect, promote and realise this right.
June 2024 marks the fifth anniversary of C190. To date, 45 countries have ratified the convention, but there is much progress to be made. Change is significantly lagging when it comes to the convention’s implementation and the transformation of workplace policy, practice and culture. The private sector has an important role to play in supporting the convention’s implementation and advocating for its ratification by more countries.
The Collective Impact Coalition to address violence and harassment in global supply chains
Recognising the role of the private sector in addressing this issue, the organisations listed below have formed a Collective Impact Coalition (CIC), with the goal of driving company change to accelerate the recognition, prevention and redress of violence and harassment in global apparel and agricultural supply chains.
These two sectors – apparel and agriculture – employ hundreds of millions of people in global supply chains. Around 60% of garment workers and 43% of agricultural workers are women. As such, companies in these sectors play a key role in contributing to a world in which every person is protected from violence and harassment at work.
The CIC builds on evidence from WBA’s Gender Benchmark, which assessed 112 companies in the apparel and food sectors.
Results show that while 86% of companies have a publicly available policy regarding violence and harassment at work, and 67% require suppliers to have such a policy, there are several gaps when it comes to translating this policy into concrete measures to address these risks in supply chains:
- Only 5% of companies disclose that they identified violence and harassment as a salient risk in their human rights due diligence process
- Just 10% of companies require suppliers to provide training to their managers and workers
- Only 20% require suppliers to have a remediation process to address violence and harassment grievances.
The call to action
This Collective Impact Coalition calls on companies to:
- Establish a commitment from the top by having a publicly available policy regarding violence and harassment’ and requiring suppliers to have such a policy.
- Identify and assess risks related to violence and harassment in supply chains by conducting gender responsive human rights due diligence that incorporates a gender lens, focusing on assessing risks and impacts of violence and harassment in the supply chain. This process should meaningfully engage workers as rightsholders, or their representatives.
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Integrate and act on the findings of the risk assessment process. Effective systems to tackle violence and harassment at work include a comprehensive approach: prevention through policies and actions, such as training workers in the supply chain; safe reporting channels; a clear grievance resolution mechanism with support for whistleblowers; and monitoring of the remediation outcomes, among other measures. These systems must be grounded in protecting freedom of association and collective bargaining, and directly involve workers and workers’ organisations.
Over the next two years, this multi-stakeholder coalition will seek to drive influential companies to accelerate recognition, prevention and redress of violence and harassment in their supply chains.
Members of the Coalition
Convened by
Members of the coalition as of November 2024
Interested in joining this coalition?
Please reach out to our Engagement Lead, Sofía del Valle, at s.delvalle@worldbenchmarkingalliance.org