Grievance mechanism FairVoice fosters stakeholder trust and drives business growth

Developing an effective grievance mechanism can be quite complex for companies, as it is often time-consuming, expensive, and laborious to create and maintain. Therefore, the FairVoice initiative was launched in India at the beginning of 2023 as a pilot programme to address these challenges. FairVoice is an all-encompassing digital whistleblowing and complaints mechanism that covers companies, their suppliers and the community.

FairVoice offers various support measures to enhance stakeholder engagement and build trust, such as customized training sessions on grievance mechanisms, workers' and suppliers' engagement workshops, guidance materials in English, Hindi, and Tamil, and advisory consultations to improve the company's grievance mechanism strategy and implementation.

The initiative is being carried out by the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce through its sustainability chapter IGCC SustainMarkets, in partnership with the Alliance for Integrity and in collaboration with the Business Scouts for Development programme which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). To ensure FairVoice provides actionable legal and management solutions for businesses, the digital tool was developed in consultation with a working group comprised of more than 20 representatives from German development agencies, international development agencies, academia, and the private sector. Today, FairVoice is implemented by multistakeholder efforts consisting of industry experts, legal professionals, and human rights due diligence experts.

FairVoice was developed to ensure companies can comply with the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz, LkSG), relevant Indian laws requiring grievance mechanisms, and the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The digital tool was also developed in line with the principles laid out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights; Legitimate, Accessible, Predictable, Equitable, Transparent, Rights-Compatible, a source of continuous learning, and based on Engagement and Dialogue.

The adoption of grievance mechanisms can be hindered by fundamental and cultural challenges, such as a lack of understanding and knowledge of the mechanisms across businesses and supply chains. To address this issue, the FairVoice initiative designed activities and measures to raise awareness, including organizing events, creating an awareness video, and publishing a roadmap for implementing an inter-company grievance redressal mechanism in India. FairVoice also includes support measures to strengthen companies' stakeholder engagement and build trust, such as customized training sessions, workers' and suppliers' engagement workshops, guidance materials in multiple languages, and advisory consultations.

FairVoice worked with selected Indian and German companies and directly improved working conditions for around 1,000 employees and workers. During the pilot phase, approximately 56,000 individuals were informed about remediation and grievance mechanisms. FairVoice is available to companies in India and Germany seeking external grievance mechanism solutions.

For more information and support visit: hhttps://www.sustainmarkets.in/contact/
Email to: sustainmarkets@indo-german.com
How FairVoice works: https://www.sustainmarkets.in/wp-content/uploads/FairVoice.pdf.