In September 2022, amfori, Fair Wear and the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (PST) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to to jointly address workers’ grievances raised at factories shared between their member brands . Now, the organisations have agreed to continue this collaboration, to pool resources in remediating grievances and to generate further learnings  for the industry to align approaches on access to remedy.  

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) strongly recommends in its Accountability and Remedy Project III that “operators of non-State-based grievance mechanisms cooperate proactively and constructively with each other in order to raise standards and promote good practice with respect to the resolution of grievances arising from business-related human rights harms.” In global garment supply chains, brands are likely to source from the same suppliers and/or factories. Those brands are often part of member organisations that seek to promote the improvement of working conditions in supply chains by providing (non-judicial) grievance mechanisms.  

Production sites where multiple member brands, from different member organisations, source from, offer unique opportunities to pool resources and make a joint impact. With this in mind, and to integrate efforts and avoid overlap, amfori, Fair Wear and PST have agreed to work together to jointly address grievances raised in shared factories.  

The objectives are to 

• support member brands and their suppliers in resolving grievances 

• align approaches and standards to facilitate the grievance process for workers 

• strengthen collaboration among stakeholders 
• provide better (access to) remedy for workers 

In line with the OHCHR’s recommendations, this initiative provides a space to test such collaboration between operators of grievance mechanisms, find synergies and align grievance handling, including investigation and remediation steps, across the industry.  

The organisations – in consultation with their main stakeholders – have drawn up a protocol setting out the scope, terms and processes for implementing this collaboration. The protocol does not replace any of the organisations’ grievance mechanisms but serves as an additional “instrument” to escalate incoming grievances whose resolution could benefit from a collaborative approach. Therefore, while any grievance raised through a channel of the participating organisations may be covered by the collaboration protocol, grievances that are more complex in nature and where the additional leverage and resources provided by the collaboration would allow for better remediation, are more likely to be escalated. The PST does not have its own grievance mechanism and participates with its members in the grievance resolution of cases in other MSIs where this arises. 

Since the start of the collaboration, several changes have been made to the scope and the mechanisms of the participating organisations:  

• Not only complex or serious grievances, but also grievances for which the leverage of one organisation and member is not sufficient may be considered for escalation to the Protocol;  

• As a result of the reorganisation, the PST has mandated its members to disclose their suppliers. The Open Supply Hub for the PST displays aggregated data on factory locations, which has nearly tripled in number. This significantly enhances the possibility of identifying potential overlaps. 

• amfori opened its supply chain grievance mechanisms to other countries (i.e. Turkiye, Bangladesh and India) and is likely to receive more complaints in the future to be considered for the Protocol 

Several cases have now been raised to the Protocol and while most are still ongoing, some have been successfully resolved. One case of particular note was a grievance concerning repeated incidents of sexual harassment against workers. The workers had raised the issue before, but not enough had been done to ensure that the perpetrator was no longer able to harass the workers. By pooling the joint leverage and resources of the members of the different organisations, the factory agreed to a thorough and independent investigation, which lead to a full disciplinary procedure and dismissal of the perpetrator.  

 Based on the learnings and first success of the collaboration, Fair Wear, the PST and amfori are confident that the Protocol can ensure the resolution of many more grievances and thereby benefit more workers. In continuing to implement the collaboration, the organisations will continue to discuss how to improve and refine processes and systems to support better identification of overlapping production locations, more efficient communication and information exchange, and faster action for remediation. 

 Fair Wear has years of experience in handling complaints under its Fair Wear complaints mechanism that operates in a large number of countries. amfori recently opened its supply chain grievance mechanism, Speak for Change Programme in Turkey, Bangladesh and India after a successful pilot in Vietnam. The PST does not have its own grievance mechanism, but promotes mechanisms of other organisations and engages in collaborative projects to improve access to remedies for workers in their members’ supply chains.