Key Topic: Training and Capacity Building for Workers and Trade Unions
Photo Credit: Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz_Pexels
What topics should training and capacity building cover?
- Responsibilities in the workplace.
- Core labor standards: elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor, effective abolition of child labor, freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, elimination of discrimination at work, and a safe and healthy working environment.
- Additional workplace rights not covered in core training content, such as rights under local law.
- Proper procedures for recording hours of work.
- Contents of pay slips; computation of wages, including piece rates, overtime, bonuses, and legal, permitted deductions.
- “Red flags” or indicators of child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking, including but not limited to abuse of vulnerability, excessive overtime, restriction of movement, and retention of identity documents.
- Policies to ensure timely and accurate payment of wages.
- Appropriate age-verification documentation.
- Policies on appropriate treatment of children identified at worksites.
- Policies and procedures for worker recruitment and hiring.
- Procedures to ensure that all workers have contracts that clearly stipulate their employment terms in language they understand, and that any changes to contracts are made with the informed written consent of workers.
- Mechanisms through which workers can submit grievances and report harassment, threats, intimidation, or other rights violations.
- Specific policies and procedures for migrant workers, including mechanisms to ensure that migrant workers are not charged fees by brokers or agents, are not required to post deposits, receive employment terms and conditions equal to those of non-migrants, and have ready access to their identity documents and a safe place to store them.
- The standards included in the company’s Code of Conduct.
- A comprehensive overview of the company’s social compliance system, showing all components and how they fit together, to help everyone understand their part in the system.
- Company expectations for each component of the system, who is responsible for which components, and how to hold them accountable.
- What to expect from an audit, and how audit data are independently verified.
- The company’s remediation policies and procedures.
- Workplace values, including mutual respect and honesty.
- The company’s public reporting process, including timeline and methodology.
- Opportunities for input, including grievance mechanisms.
Step 4: Communicate and Train Across a Supply Chain
