Electronics Watch pursues remedy for business-related harms in public supply chains by meaningfully engaging workers in efforts to address the identified issues.

What is remediation?

Remediation is the process of restoring a person or group who experienced harm to the state they were in before the harm occurred. We also use the term "remedy": this refers to both the process of counteracting harm to workers, sometimes described as making them whole, and the outcomes of that process.

We believe that remedy should be worker-driven. Because of power imbalances between companies and workers, support from others, including public buyers, is often needed to ensure workers are meaningfully engaged and their needs and perspectives are prioritised. This is particularly important for vulnerable workers who lack labour law protection.

Remedy has three goals: to stop abuses that are already occurring, prevent them from recurring, and provide reparations to people who experienced harms. Reparations should include both backward-looking restorative measures (like apologies, rehabilitation, financial compensation) and forward-looking or preventative measures (like policy changes, training).

The right to effective remedy is a fundamental human right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Remedy is also an important part of the human rights due diligence process.

How do we pursue remedy?

Structured industry engagement

We engage industry associations, such as the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), on behalf of our affiliates. The RBA is an industry association that convenes many brands, manufacturers and resellers in electronics and LEV supply chains. It aims to improve industry compliance with relevant labour regulations, internationally recognised codes and workers' rights standards. We engage with the RBA under the Terms of Engagement which establish the responsibilities, process, and timeline for action following the submission of an Electronics Watch investigative report. They apply to specific cases affecting both parties' respective members.

Electronics Watch also pursues remedy for workers through direct engagement with companies.

Supporting unions

We provide training and guidance to trade unions to help them support access to remedy in general and in specific cases. We meaningfully engage stakeholders in the remediation of individual cases, or support supply chain actors to do so.

Facilitating collective action among affiliates

Like joint dialogue with common suppliers, and standardisation of remedy requirements. We produce quarterly reports for our affiliates which keep them updated about the remediation process and provide guidance on how they should engage their contractors.

Enabling individual action by affiliates

We help affiliates to hold dialogue with their suppliers and to enforce compliance with their contract requirements.

Read our Principles of Worker-Driven Remedy to learn more.

Principles of Worker Driven Remedy