6. Complaints
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.
a) Enable 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.
Complaints procedures shall be designed to be accessible and relevant to affected stakeholders, taking into account the specific circumstances of the business.
Own operations
You can use different types of channels for submitting complaints, such as telephone, post and email. Digital channels can make it easier to submit complaints and can also enable anonymous communication. The main thing is that you inform relevant stakeholders about how and where complaints can be submitted. The information shall be easily accessible and available in relevant languages. You should also make it clear that complainants should be protected against retaliation.
For example, you can inform people about the complaints procedure through onboarding, workplace meetings, worker representatives, training, notices or other communication channels such as an intranet.
Some suppliers are also subject to the requirements of the Swedish Whistleblowing Act and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. The requirements under these regulatory frameworks partly overlap and are more extensive than the contract clauses on due diligence.
We have developed a complaints procedure template and a notification mechanism template (a channel for enabling complaints), which are based on the requirements of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the effectiveness criteria for grievance mechanisms set out in Principle 31 of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Even if you are not subject to this legislation, the templates can help you establish effective processes.
The templates are available at Templates process requirements 6. There is no requirement to use our templates.
Supply chains
Enabling complaints within the supply chain is often more complex than in your own operations. Here too, you can use different types of channels, such as telephone, post and email. Companies often make the same channels used in their own operations available to people in the supply chain, for example, a digital channel.
You also need to make it clear that the channel is open to the supply chain. A common way to do this is to include contact details in the supplier code of conduct. You can also include the information in contract terms or communicate it directly to worker representatives. The information should be easily accessible and available in relevant languages.
Where practicable, you can also make the information visible at the sub-supplier’s workplace, for example through posters with a QR code or contact details. This should be done in dialogue with the sub-supplier and adapted to local circumstances.
You may also join multi-stakeholder initiatives that provide access to complaints mechanisms, such as amfori BSCI. There are also sector-specific initiatives, for example:
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (palm oil)
Forest Stewardship Council (forest products)
Fair Labor Association (apparel)
Fair Wear Association (apparel)
International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry (clothing and textiles)
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. The eight criteria are from the UN Guiding Principles.
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. |
PAGE CONTENT
Templates process requirement 6
PROCESS REQUIREMENTS DUE DILIGENCE
1. Policies and responsibilities
3. Prevent and mitigate (causation/contribution)
4. Prevent and mitigate (linkage)
RELATED LINKS SUPPLIERS
3. Supplier’s reporting obligation
RELATED LINKS BUYERS
Suggested verifications
- Instructions describing how you enable complaints in your own operations and in your supply chains.
- Links to, screenshots from, or other documentation of the channels used to submit complaints, such as digital platforms, email addresses or telephone numbers.
- Codes of conduct or other communications containing information about complaints channels.
- Photographs of posters displaying information about complaints channels that have been made available in your own operations or at sub-suppliers’ facilities.
- Links to the complaints procedures of multi-stakeholder initiatives.
Guidance for auditor
Fulfils requirement
The company has one or more channels that rights-holders, their representatives, human rights defenders and others can use to submit complaints within its own operations, and these channels are accessible to the respective stakeholder groups.
The company enables complaints from rights-holders in the supply chains of sample products, for example by:
- Providing information on grievance channels in the code of conduct, such as links or QR codes to digital channels or email addresses and telephone numbers.
- Making information on complaints channels available at sub-suppliers’ facilities, for example through posters displaying links or QR codes to digital channels or email addresses and telephone numbers.
- Participating in multi-stakeholder initiatives that provide accessible complaints 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 that rights-holders, their representatives, human rights defenders, etc. can use to submit complaints within its own operations, or the channels are not accessible to the respective stakeholder groups.
The company does not in any way enable complaints from rights-holders in the supply chains of sample products.
b) Address complaints
You shall address the submitted complaints.
By addressing complaints according to established procedures, you can prevent harm from worsening and complaints from escalating. In our template for complaint procedures, which is available at Templates process requirements 6, there is support for how you can:
- Receive complaints, including registering and categorizing them.
- Verify complaints, including prioritizing serious and urgent complaints.
- Investigate complaints and determine measures, including guidelines for the procedure.
- Establish remedy, including rules for cause/contribution and different types of remedy.
- Implement and follow up on the remedy.
- Close complaints, including assessing satisfaction.
- Handle feedback and evaluate results.
There is no requirement to use our template.
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 describing how it addresses complaints in its own operations and in its supply chains.
It is sufficient that the company can show that there are procedures for addressing complaints – proof of actual implementation is not required. However, such documentation can strengthen the company’s claim that procedures exist. Examples include documented handled complaints.
Does not fulfil requirement
The company lacks instructions or equivalent documentation describing how it addresses complaints in its own operations and in its supply chains.
The company also lacks evidence of actual implementation, which could strengthen the company’s claim that procedures exist.
Templates process requirement 6
- Complaints procedure template
- Notification mechanism template
- Text to include in your supplier code of conduct, 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 through [QR code].
You are welcome to write in your own language. All information provided will be treated with strict confidentiality.