Christiane Benner, Deputy Chairwoman of IG Metall: “The Supply Chain Due Diligence Act is a good start to the new year. Companies must take real responsibility for their supply chains from January 1st. This means consistently complying with human rights and environmental due diligence obligations and is good news for all employees. It is all the more difficult to understand the refusal on the part of the employers, who have tried to prevent the law from coming into force to the last mile.
The possibility of using co-determination to identify risks and to initiate countermeasures is particularly welcome in the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act. This creates a central field of action for the works councils, which also includes the European and global level. More co-determination in business is the right way – hopefully this start in 2023 bodes well for co-determination throughout the year!”
Wolfgang Lemb, Executive Board Member of IG Metall: “The Supply Chain Due Diligence Act is an important approach to ensure that companies will operate more sustainably in the future. Modern slave labor and other human rights violations are not uncommon, but are currently part of many supply chains. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that 60 percent of the world’s working population lack guaranteed labor or social protections. The Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, which will soon come into force, is therefore overdue. So far, employee representatives have had too little say in the monitoring of supply chains in companies – that can and must change now.”
Background: The focus of the new requirements is the obligation of companies with at least 3000 employees to establish an appropriate and effective risk management system. It will also be mandatory to set up an internal grievance mechanism through which possible risks and violations of human rights in the supply chain can be reported while maintaining confidentiality. In Germany, this affects around 200 companies with a total of 2.42 million employees in the metal and electrical industry and in the other sectors organized by IG Metall.
More information and press photos from Christiane Benner