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Case Study: Labor Line: Enhancing Grievance Reporting and Resolution in Mexico, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia




Labor Solutions worked with a client to implement Labor Line in Mexico, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. This initiative aims to enhance the reporting and resolution of worker grievances, ensuring a safer and more compliant working environment.


Why Labor Line?

Labor Line was developed to address the critical need for a robust grievance reporting mechanism within our global supply chain. The primary objectives include:

  • Ensuring compliance with international labor standards.

  • Improving workplace conditions through efficient grievance resolution.

  • Providing a reliable and anonymous platform for workers to voice their concerns.

  • Ensuring supplier collaboration. Certain case types were sent directly to suppliers to resolve with Labor Solutions oversight.  


Implementation Process

The implementation of Labor Line always follows a structured approach to ensure its effectiveness and alignment with both corporate and regulatory standards.


  1. Alignment with Client’s Code of Conduct: Labor Line protocols were developed to meet corporate and regulatory standards, ensuring alignment with the client's Code of Conduct.

  2. Training for Suppliers: A series of comprehensive training sessions were conducted for suppliers to help them understand the process and their roles within it.

  3. Awareness Campaign: Posters and videos were distributed across the facilities to announce the program to workers and clearly communicate how grievances would be handled.


User Experience

Labor Line was designed with user accessibility and anonymity as key priorities to encourage worker participation and trust.

  • Anonymity: Workers can report grievances anonymously, ensuring their safety and encouraging open communication.

  • Multi-Lingual Support: The system supports multiple languages, making it accessible to a diverse workforce.

  • Multi- Channel Support: Workers were able to contact Labor Line via phone call, SMS and WhatsApp.

  • Transparent Case Management: all cases are first collected by the Labor Solutions team who triages and assigns the case to the appropriate party to follow up. Once assigned each managing party can access the case from their dashboard and manage responses, upload supporting documents and more. Labor Solutions maintains oversight the whole time.

  • Direct Employer/Supplier Inclusion: Most cases (after assessing for severity and urgency) are assigned to the direct employer to resolve with Labor Solutions oversight. This enables a faster resolution and creates a more collaborative relationship between the system, the brand and the suppliers.

  • Follow up + Closing the Loop: Once a case is closed the Labor Solutions team always follows up with the worker to tell them how the case was resolved and make sure they believe it has been resolved too.

  • Real-Time Data and Reporting: Monthly reports detailing grievance types, handling progress, and trends are provided, aiding continuous improvement efforts.


Outcomes and Benefits

Labor Line seeks to involve direct employers in the process. The protocol sends most cases to employers directly, while still maintaining oversight. This improves speed of resolution, quality of remediation and helps the supplier make long term strategic improvements.


Since this client implement Labor Line, their program has had significant positive outcomes:


Effective Case Handling:

  • 77% of cases are handled directly by suppliers with oversight from Labor Solutions, ensuring swift and effective resolutions.

Enhanced Grievance Resolution:

  • The systematic approach led to quicker and more effective resolutions of issues, directly contributing to worker satisfaction and safety.

Increased Case Reporting:

  • There has been a 56% increase in the number of reported cases from the previous system, attributed to better supplier collaboration and trust in the process.


Rapid Case Closure:

  • 86% of cases were closed within two weeks, highlighting the efficiency of the Labor Line system.


Due to the success of Labor Line, the client is expanding coverage to three more countries and hundreds more suppliers.


For more information on how Labor Line can benefit your organization reach out to your Labor Solutions' contact today!

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