Information: This report is outdated – you can find the current sustainability report here.
Our goal is to foster dialogue between workers and management within our production facilities. Ideally, conflicts should be resolved internally, at the source, and in a thorough manner. In instances where internal resolution proves challenging, external complaint channels are readily accessible to all workers at our production partners.
We have assisted our partner Tah Hsin in Myanmar in enhancing its internal complaint system, focusing on providing communication channels and ensuring subsequent processing.
An essential consideration is also bolstering workers' trust in their internal complaint system. It's crucial to offer anonymous channels for complaints and guarantee that there are no adverse repercussions for utilizing the complaint mechanism. Each complaint must undergo thorough investigation, with feedback provided to workers for resolution.
Our partner Tah Hsin has successfully implemented this, and workers feel confident in bringing their concerns directly to their workplace. The production facility has also made comprehensive efforts to address previously received complaints, confirmed by external audits. Our CSR staff regularly review complaint processing.
These systems effectively cover complaints about working conditions and human rights violations at our producers.
In collaboration with Sumations, an external complaint mechanism was introduced in August and September 2023 for our producers in Cambodia. The com-box complaint mechanism by Sumations is used here. Workers can submit their concerns in the local language via voice or text message. They can decide whether to submit their concerns anonymously or with personalization.
To introduce the complaint mechanism, extensive training sessions were held for managers and workers. About 20% of the workers were trained to carry out a complete complaint process to disseminate the knowledge to their colleagues as multipliers. Information material was provided for this purpose.
All participants who conducted and submitted a complaint process during the training days were eligible to participate in a lottery. Three workers were able to win a mobile phone. As a result, all workers have carried out the complaint process at least once and now know how it works.
Workers submit complaints through designated mechanisms (Fair Wear, MADE, Sumations). These complaints are then forwarded to us, and we are responsible for resolving them with our producer. We report the resolution back to the complaint mechanism and Fair Wear. Fair Wear verifies the resolution and publishes the report on their website. Read more here.
All our production facilities have already participated in WEP (Worker Engagement Programme) training sessions by Fair Wear.
A component of the WEP training is the complaint system. In these sessions, the mechanism for lodging complaints is explained to the workers as well as the managers, and contact information is distributed on small cards. Additionally, the focus is on internal communication between workers and managers, and internal complaint mechanisms. The aim is to resolve issues internally, resorting to Fair Wear's complaint office only when internal resolution is not possible.
In 2023, VAUDE received eight complaints through the Fair Wear complaints office. All complaints are published on FW's homepage, and you can read them here.