Turning Complaints into Opportunities for Change

Every challenge and conflict, including complaints, serves as a catalyst for positive change and the improvement of conditions. Therefore, we empower workers in our supply chain to express their grievances.

Should issues or concerns remain unresolved within the production facility, workers have the option to seek assistance from external complaint mechanisms to report matters related to working conditions and human rights violations. Each complaint is thoroughly investigated and addressed in accordance with Fair Wear's standards, through collaborative efforts with our production partners.

Focus on Internal Complaint Mechanisms

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.

VAUDE Supports Producers in Establishing Internal Complaint Mechanisms

In collaboration with our CSR team in Asia, we have worked closely with our long-standing partner in Myanmar to establish an effective internal complaint system within our supplier management framework.

VAUDE actively supports and monitors the effectiveness of internal complaint mechanisms throughout our entire supply chain at Tier 1 level (sewing). Our CSR team has thoroughly assessed all internal complaint mechanisms and identified areas for improvement. We are progressively aiding our partners in enhancing their internal systems, prioritizing actions based on risk.

Support for our Partners in Myanmar

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.

External Complaint Mechanisms

If workers in a production facility have an issue or problem that cannot be resolved internally – whether through discussions or by using the internal complaint mechanism – they have the option to use an external complaint mechanism. It is crucial that workers have the opportunity to turn to a higher, neutral authority if internal matters cannot be resolved. Complaints can be made anonymously or with personal data through various locally operating organizations. These complaint mechanisms are managed by local staff for complaint handling, who speak the same language as the workers, are in the same time zone, and come from the same cultural background. This is crucial for building trust.

Complaint Mechanisms for Employees of our Producers:

There are various ways for our producers’ workers to file a complaint. The Fair Wear complaint mechanism is the most frequently used.

Fair Wear
Fair Wear offers a local complaints office in almost all VAUDE production countries.

Com-Box by Sumations
Sumations operates the com-box complaints mechanism for our producers in Cambodia as an external service provider. Fair Wear does not have a local team for handling complaints in Cambodia.

MADE Myanmar
In Myanmar, workers in production facilities can use both the Fair Wear and MADE complaint mechanisms.

These systems effectively cover complaints about working conditions and human rights violations at our producers.

Introduction of an External Complaints Mechanism for our Producers in Cambodia

Fair Wear does not have a local team for receiving and handling complaints in Cambodia. Therefore, we have collaborated with Sumations to establish a complaint mechanism for the workers of our producers in Cambodia.

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.

In addition to the traditional training on the functionality of the complaint mechanism, training on conflict management and professional handling of complaints has also been conducted. This included an analysis of the internal complaint system with managers and the definition of specific action needs. Furthermore, internal communication with a focus on the positive role of employee representatives was trained.

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How are External Complaints Handled?

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.

Contact Information Complaint System

Every production facility is required to prominently display the contact information of the complaints office for the workers. This is regularly checked during audits by our own CSR personnel on-site.

Training on the Complaint System

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.

Complaints 2023

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.

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GRI:

103-2