REMEDIATE
Counteract and remedy adverse impacts
Support the people in your supply chains by righting wrongs and fixing the broken practices that allow wrongs to occur in the first place.
ACTION
01
Ensure timely remedy and successful corrective actions for verified worker grievances
Provide support
- Prepare to provide a range of support.
- Remediation needs of workers can range from immediate needs such as food, clothing, health and safety, to more involved, long-term needs including formal employment, psychosocial support, socio-economic stability, and legal assistance.
- Both civil and criminal remedies should be made available to workers, including the costs of return for a worker to engage in proceedings where the harm occurred.
Establish a process
- Establish a process to collect, investigate, and verify workplace grievances.
- Ensure processes are transparent, yet confidential, and communicate to workers about the grievances received.
- While verifying the accuracy of grievances is essential, do not put an undue burden of proof on workers. Ideally, when a grievance is received, it is investigated as needed but assumed honest and accurate.
- Review Build Capacity Action 4 if your company needs to establish grievance mechanisms.
- Ensure processes are transparent, yet confidential, and communicate to workers about the grievances received.
Implement and support
- Implement or support processes for the remediation of worker grievances throughout your company’s seafood supply chains.
- Many companies may receive price benefits from labor abuses associated with cost-cutting (e.g., forced labor, debt bondage, etc.). Companies should include the costs of remediation in business operations and encourage peers and companies they purchase from to do the same.
Document
- Document steps taken to investigate and remedy a claim, tracking the outcomes and settlements of worker grievances.
Make improvements
- Implement and document corrective actions taken to remedy the root causes of workplace grievances.
Human Rights at Sea
Institute for Human Rights and Business
Ethical Trading Initiative
ACTION
02
Reimburse recruitment fees and related costs paid by workers. Establish mechanisms and safeguards to eliminate worker-paid recruitment and other illegal fees
Develop processes
- Establish and implement processes to identify and document recruitment fees and related costs paid by workers.
Ensure workers are paid
- Ensure payments are received by workers.
- Pay salaries through a bank account supplemented with a written or electronic payslip to facilitate transparency and monitoring.
- Confirm that workers are the owners of and have full, unhindered access to the bank accounts listed.
Prevent fees and other costs
- Document steps taken to prevent future fees and related costs from being incurred by workers, including partnering with trusted recruitment agencies that implement ILO guidelines or moving recruitment efforts in-house.
Incorporate costs
- Incorporate the costs for reimbursement into payments to suppliers and other companies in the supply chain.
International Labour Organization
RISE
ACTION
03
Reimburse or bear the costs of worker repatriation
Commit to repatriating workers
- Commit to repatriating workers at the end of their tenure with the company, facility, farm, or vessel, so they do not face risks of stranding in remote regions or with limited legal protections.
- Establish and implement processes to repatriate workers upon the termination of their contracts, regardless of which party initiates the termination.
- Do not leave workers in a country where they do not have the appropriate legal documents or protections.
- Consider bearing or repaying the costs of repatriation in certain instances that are still fair to workers (e.g., the worker has legal protections in the travel countries, a fair agreement of this nature was stipulated in the contract, etc.).
Gather supply chain data
- Gather supply chain data or third-party information on an ongoing basis regarding the risks of workers being stranded outside their country of citizenship during their course of work.
- Sources of data and information include media and news, updates from local advocacy groups, and reports from civil society organizations or government agencies
Prevent incurring repatriation fees
- Document the steps taken to prevent future workers from incurring repatriation fees or being stranded.
International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) Global
ILO and IMO
Optimize Your Company's Path
Discover how companies can apply the RISE Roadmap to improve their social responsibility practices.
Retailers/Brands
- Require that all companies in the supply chain document and promptly respond to human and labor rights grievances raised by seafood workers.
- Work collaboratively with suppliers to develop corrective action plans, addressing immediate issues and root causes. Establish a timeline and process to verify improvements. See Build Capacity Action 4.
- Commit funding to support improvements and provide remedy to seafood workers for verified claims.
- Contribute to the development of processes that remediate worker grievances regardless of whether your company owns the facilities.
- Collaborate with corporate peers sourcing from similar regions or suppliers.
- Support suppliers, processors, and producers to implement grievance mechanisms and consider developing joint mechanisms.
- Develop processes to verify grievance claims.
- Ensure mechanisms for remedy are included.
Suppliers
- Require that all companies in the supply chain document and promptly respond to human and labor rights grievances raised by seafood workers.
- Work collaboratively with suppliers to develop corrective action plans, addressing immediate issues and root causes. Establish a timeline and process to verify improvements. See Build Capacity Action 4.
- Commit funding to support improvements and provide remedy to seafood workers for verified claims.
- Contribute to the development of processes that remediate worker grievances regardless of whether your company owns the facilities.
- Collaborate with corporate peers sourcing from similar regions or suppliers.
- Support suppliers, processors, and producers to implement grievance mechanisms and consider developing joint mechanisms.
- Develop processes to verify grievance claims.
- Ensure mechanisms for remedy are included.
Processors
- Investigate and remediate worker grievances, including setting funds aside for corrective action plans, remediation, repatriation, remuneration, and the provision of any other necessary resources as applicable.
- Work with buyers and other companies in the supply chain to co-develop and support the grievance process.
- Track remediation outcomes and settlements.
- When improvement opportunities are identified, embed effective solutions into management systems to prevent reoccurrence.
Producers
- Investigate and remediate worker grievances, including setting funds aside for corrective action plans, remediation, repatriation, remuneration, and the provision of any other necessary resources as applicable.
- Work with buyers and other companies in the supply chain to co-develop and support the grievance process.
- Track remediation outcomes and settlements.
- When improvement opportunities are identified, embed effective solutions into management systems to prevent reoccurrence.
Build the Foundation
Responsible Recruitment
- Follow the guidance in Remediate Action 2 to eliminate recruitment fees and implement good recruitment practices.
Worker Engagement
- Remediate issues raised through worker engagement, including but not limited to formal grievance mechanisms, worker hotlines, and any issues raised by trade unions, committees, or other workers’ associations by following the guidance in Remediate Actions 1-3.
- Workers or their representatives should participate in verification of remedy.
Decent Work at Sea
- Provide channels for remediation for seafood workers who may return from at-sea trips to different countries than those in which the vessel or employer is located.
- Reimburse or bear the costs of worker repatriation.