The VolkswagenThe company found two human rights violations in its first annual report under the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, including a case of wage slavery. This emerges from a report presented on Friday. Overall, the group gives itself a good rating. The two violations were the only ones found when checking more than 60,000 suppliers in 90 countries.
The most serious case probably concerned an indirect supplier, i.e. the supplier of a supplier. According to the information, there was withholding of appropriate wages, wage slavery and violations of occupational safety. VW responded immediately and remedied the problem. When asked, the group did not want to give details. The second offense involved the use of banned chemicals in extinguishing agents. Here too, VW reacted immediately.
“Volkswagen openly explains where there is potential for improvement and how concrete measures will be implemented in these areas,” said the company’s human rights officer, Kerstin Waltenberg. “But we are not stopping at the analysis; we have initiated initial measures to improve the way we deal with the risks.”
Xinjiang not part of the report
According to VW, the controversial plant and test track in the Chinese province of Xinjiang do not fall under the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act: Both are not operated by VW itself, but by a joint venture with the Chinese manufacturer Saic. In addition, they do not deliver anything to other group companies. “It is still not the case that we are ignoring the work because of this,” Waltenberg emphasized in November.
The location, which opened in 2013, has been criticized for possible human rights abuses in the province. According to reports, forced labor occurred several years ago during the construction of a test track for the joint venture between VW and SAIC in Xinjiang. The Wolfsburg-based company has been negotiating the future of the location with its Chinese partner since February.
Uighurs, members of other minorities and human rights organizations have been reporting for years that hundreds of thousands of people in Xinjiang are being put into re-education camps against their will, in some cases tortured and forced into forced labor. The Chinese government denies these allegations.
The German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act came into force in 2023. Larger companies are obliged to ensure compliance with human rights throughout their production and must submit an annual report on this. The threshold at which the law comes into effect was reduced from 3,000 to 1,000 employees in 2024.
The EU also passed a supply chain law this year. Here, however, the massive protest against this ultimately led to a significant weakening of the regulations. In the opinion of Vaude boss Antje von Dewitz, this is the law without alternative.