Process requirement 6
We explain the key functions of complaints procedures, for which stakeholders they shall be accessible, and the need to address submitted complaints.
Excerpt from the contract clause
Supplier shall enable stakeholders such as rights-holders, their representatives and environmental and human rights defenders to submit complaints if they have concerns about actual or potential adverse impacts in Supplier’s operations or supply chains. Supplier shall address the submitted complaints.
Enabling complaints
You shall enable stakeholders such as rights-holders, their representatives and environmental and human rights defenders to submit complaints if they have concerns about actual or potential adverse impacts in your operations or supply chains.
Complaints procedures serve two key functions:
- They help identify adverse impacts by providing affected parties with a channel to report issues.
- They enable swift handling and remediation, preventing further harm or escalation of complaints.
It is important to allow complaints from more than just rights-holders directly affected by your operations, such as environmental and human rights defenders. When designing your complaints procedures, ensure they are accessible to relevant stakeholders based on your specific circumstances.
Own operations
A complaints procedure can be based on traditional communication methods such as telephone, mail and email. This is common for impacts on surrounding communities, where companies often use various contact persons for community relations.
However, the use of digital platforms that ensure anonymity and encrypted communication has increased. In Sweden, this development has accelerated after the adoption of the Act on the Protection of Persons Reporting Irregularities (Whistleblower Act) in 2021.
The law requires employers with at least 50 employees to establish internal whistleblower functions, including reporting channels and follow-up processes. The protection applies to reporting of misconduct in the public interest and misconduct that violates directly applicable EU law.
Employers must document their internal reporting channels and processes. Reporting shall be possible in writing, orally and, upon request, through a physical meeting. These channels shall be available to employees, volunteers, interns, self-employed persons, board and management members, and shareholders who are active in the company.
Some companies have opened up their whistleblowing channels to cover wrongdoing (material scope) and individuals (personal scope) that fall outside the scope of the law. This is possible, but from a legal perspective it is important to clarify what is covered by the protection of the Whistleblower Act.
With the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, new requirements for complaints procedures for human rights and the environment are introduced, in line with the effectiveness criteria for complaints procedures (see below). In light of this, we have developed a template for a notification mechanism (the term used in the directive), to be integrated into a digital platform that ensures anonymity and confidentiality. This mechanism needs to be accompanied by an instruction on how to handle received complaints. The template can be found below under Templates process requirement 6.
Supply chains
Enabling complaints from rights-holders, their representatives and environmental and human rights defenders in the supply chain is often more challenging than in your own operations. Here are some examples of channels:
- If you already have a digital notification mechanism for your own operations, you may want to consider making the platform available in relevant languages also to the supply chain.
- If this is not possible, you can provide alternative contact channels, such as email addresses or telephone numbers (hotlines), for rights-holders in the supply chain.
How do you then make the channels available to rights-holders in the supply chain?
Should you opt to use the European Model Clauses (currently in draft form), you will automatically have sections on complaints procedures in line with the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. You will also have sections on Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence Monitoring Committees, including Stakeholder Representatives—which in this case means workers. Through these Stakeholder Representatives you can make your complaint procedures available to workers in the factory. They can also act as representatives of the workers regarding complaints.
Another option is to include information in your code of conduct on how to contact you, and to require sub-suppliers to display it in prominent locations on their premises. We have developed a template text for this purpose, which can be found below under Templates process requirement 6. You can also provide posters with QR codes to digital notification mechanisms, to be displayed in the same way. However, displaying codes of conduct or posters only works in factories with few customers. For it to be effective to post a code of conduct, it also needs to be translated into local languages.
You could also consider joining a multi-stakeholder initiative that ensures access to an effective complaints procedure where affected right-holders or their representatives can raise concerns when commitments are not met. An example of such a procedure is the amfori BSCI:s klagomålsmekanism.
Here are also examples of industry-specific complaints procedures:
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (palmolja)
Forest Stewardship Council (skogsprodukter)
Fair Labor Association (kläder)
Fair Wear Association (kläder)
International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry (kläder och textilier)
Effectiveness criteria for complaints procedures
The following criteria serve as a guide for designing, revising, or evaluating complaints procedures, with the aim of ensuring their practical effectiveness.
A well-functioning complaints procedure should be:
| Legitimate | Enabling trust from the stakeholder groups for whose use they are intended and being accountable for the fair conduct of grievance processes. |
| Accessible | Being known to all stakeholder groups for whose use they are intended, and providing adequate assistance for those who may face particular barriers to access. |
| Predictable | Providing a clear and known procedure with an indicative time frame for each stage, and clarity on the types of process and outcome available and means of monitoring implementation. |
| Equitable | Seeking to ensure that aggrieved parties have reasonable access to sources of information, advice and expertise necessary to engage in a grievance process on fair, informed and respectful terms. |
| Transparent | Keeping parties to a grievance informed about its progress and providing sufficient information about the mechanism’s performance to build confidence in its effectiveness and meet any public interest at stake. |
| Rights-compatible | Ensuring that outcomes and remedies accord with internationally recognized human rights. |
| A source of continuous learning | Drawing on relevant measures to identify lessons for improving the mechanism and preventing future grievances and harms. |
| Based on engagement and dialogue | Consulting the stakeholder groups for whose use they are intended on their design and performance and focusing on dialogue as the means to address and resolve grievances. |
Suggested verifications
- Instructions describing how you enable complaints in your own operations and supply chains.
- Links to or screenshots of digital notification mechanisms.
- Screenshots containing information about email addresses or phone numbers serving as notification mechanisms.
- Codes of conduct with links to digital notification mechanisms or information about email addresses or phone numbers serving as notification mechanisms.
- Photos of posters with QR codes linking to notification mechanisms, displayed in and around your own operations.
- Photos of posters with QR codes linking to notification mechanisms, displayed in sub-suppliers’ facilities.
- Links to complaints procedures provided by multi-stakeholder initiatives.
Guidance for auditor
Fulfils requirement
The company has one or more channels through which rights-holders, their representatives, human rights defenders, etc. can submit complaints, and these are available to the respective stakeholder group:
The company has established digital channels, email addresses, telephone numbers and/or physical mailboxes for internal and external stakeholders in and around its own operations.
The company enables complaints from rights-holders in the supply chains of sample products, for example by:
- Providing a link/QR code to a digital channel (translated into relevant languages) or email addresses/phone numbers, in the Code of Conduct.
- Including wordings about “monitoring committees” and “stakeholder representatives” in supplier agreements.
- Putting up posters in suppliers’ premises with QR codes for digital channels.
- Participating in multi-stakeholder initiatives with available complaint mechanisms.
Note that there is no requirement that those who make complaints shall be able to remain anonymous.
Does not fulfil requirement
The company lacks channels through which rights-holders, their representatives, human rights defenders, etc. can submit complaints, or they are not available to the respective stakeholder group:
The company lacks established digital channels, email addresses, phone numbers and/or physical mailboxes for internal and external stakeholders in and around its own operations.
The company does not in any way enable complaints from rights-holders in the supply chains of sample products.
Addressing complaints
You shall address the submitted complaints.
By addressing complaints according to established processes, you can prevent adverse impact from worsening and complaints from escalating. It is also important to link these processes to your deviation management procedures.
For a complaints procedure to be effective, oversight and accountability at a high level are required. In smaller companies, this can be managed through a simple reporting line to senior management, while larger companies often need more formal control and oversight. If trust between you and affected rights-holders is low and risks are high, joint oversight can be beneficial. This can help build confidence and ensure that the complaints procedure is tailored to the needs of its users.
Suggested verifications
- Instructions describing how you address complaints in your own operations and supply chains.
- Documented addressed complaints, for sample products.
Guidance for auditor
Fulfils requirement
The company has instructions or equivalent documentation that describes how it addresses complaints in its own operations and supply chains, including:
- What the division of responsibilities (e.g. investigation, feedback, supervision), time frames, etc. looks like.
- How the complaints are linked to the company’s incident or deviation management system, if it is not the same system.
There is evidence that shows how the company has addressed complaints, such as extracts from complaints systems or documented and addressed complaints.
Does not fulfil requirement
The company lacks instructions or equivalent documentation that describe how it addresses complaints in its own operations and/or supply chains, or they are incomplete:
- It is not clear what the division of responsibilities (e.g. investigation, feedback, supervision), time frames, etc. looks like.
- Instructions or equivalent documentation are available for complaints in the company’s own operations, but not for complaints in the supply chain.
- It is not clear how the complaints are linked to the company’s incident or deviation management system, if it is the same system.
There is no evidence showing how the company has addressed complaints, such as extracts from complaints systems or documented and addressed complaints.
Templates process requirement 6
- Notification mechanism template
- European Model Clauses (draft)
- Text to include in your code of conduct for suppliers, to be displayed in local languages at sub-suppleirs’ facilities:
CONTACT [COMPANY NAME]
If your employer violates any part of this code of conduct, we want to know about it. Please report the issue by contacting us at [phone number], [email address], or by filling out the form at [link/QR code].
You are welcome to write in your own language. All information provided will be treated with strict confidentiality. - Responsible sourcing instruction template (section 4) (currently under revision)
Process requirements
Integrate commitments into policies and allocate responsibility for policies and due diligence
We explain the requirements for policies and how responsibilities shall be allocated between the board of directors, managers, and employees.
Identify and assess adverse impacts
We explain the concepts of risk suppliers, supply chain mapping, rights-holder consultations and particularly vulnerable groups, as well as how to prioritise risks based on likelihood and severity.
Prevent and mitigate adverse impacts that you cause or contribute to
We explain the responsibility to cease activities that cause or contribute to adverse impacts, establish action plans, and promote sustainable purchasing practices.
Prevent and mitigate adverse impacts linked to your operations
We explain the responsibility regarding supplier assessments, action plans, and the forwarding of requirements—including transparency—as well as the ability to temporarily suspend or terminate the contract.
Monitor the measures to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts
We explain what we mean by following-up action plans, meaningful consultations with rights-holders, and addressing deviations.
Enable complaints
We explain the key functions of complaints procedures, for which stakeholders they should be accessible, and the need to address submitted complaints.
Provide for remediation
We explain the concept of remediation, when remediation is required, the importance of engaging in meaningful consultation with affected rights-holders, and the need to assess whether they are satisfied with both the process and the outcome.