CSDDD Compliance Starts with Finding What You Don’t Know. Here’s the System That Closes the Loop.

The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive requires companies to provide access to remedy for workers in their value chains — and to demonstrate that grievance mechanisms are effective, not just available. Labor Solutions' WOVO platform is purpose-built to meet every CSDDD worker engagement requirement, with eight years of publicly disclosed evidence to prove it.

More workers than any other tool in the industry.

3.8M+ active workers across 180+ countries in 41+ languages. Grievance resolution rate: 99%. Worker satisfaction: 79% (up from 39% in 2019). Average response time: under 11 hours (down from 49 hours in 2020). Eight years of publicly disclosed data. One platform.

Six CSDDD requirements. WOVO meets all of them.

CSDDD Article 9 requires companies to establish or participate in operational-level grievance mechanisms for workers in their value chains. The six core requirements — and how WOVO addresses each one:

1. Accessible to all workers, including anonymously. WOVO Connect is accessible via smartphone app, SMS, QR code, and IVR — in 41+ languages. Workers do not need a personal device, data plan, or literacy to use it.

2. Known and trusted by workers. adidas’ 2025 sustainability report describes WOVO as “highly effective” and “trusted by workers,” evidenced by “consistent, widespread, sustained usage.” Worker satisfaction has risen from 39% in 2019 to 79% in 2025.

3. Timely response and resolution. Average response time is under 11 hours — down from 49 hours in 2020. The 99% resolution rate has held for four consecutive years.

4. Access to remedy. WOVO Connect's structured case management assigns each complaint to a responsible party, tracks resolution, and closes the loop with the worker. Full audit trail included.

5. Ongoing monitoring and effectiveness review. Real-time dashboards surface grievance rates, resolution times, satisfaction scores, and supplier-level KPIs. Monitoring is continuous, not periodic.

6. Proactive stakeholder engagement. The WELL Survey program give brands a proactive, structured way to understand worker sentiment — capturing risk signals before they become grievances.

Four tools. One integrated system.

Each WOVO module addresses a distinct CSDDD requirement. Together they create a continuous evidence base that regulators, investors, and auditors can verify over time.

WOVO Connect — Operational grievance mechanism. Aligned to UN Guiding Principles Principle 31. Workers submit via app, SMS, QR code, or IVR. Structured case management with full audit trail. Used by adidas across 400,000+ workers. Meets CSDDD Article 9.

WELL Survey — Validated worker voice surveys. Collects primary human rights risk data on working conditions, recruitment fees, safety, discrimination, and rights awareness. Aligned to UNGPs and CSDDD. Meets CSDDD stakeholder engagement requirements.

WOVO Improve — Supplier self-assessment and action planning. Suppliers assess HRDD maturity, generate automated improvement plans, and track remediation. Creates documented evidence of continuous improvement for CSDDD monitoring requirements.

WOVO Educate — Rights-based eLearning. Digital training for workers and suppliers in 41+ languages. Covers labour rights, safety, anti-harassment, and HRDD obligations. Tracked completion for reporting.

adidas called it ‘highly effective.’ Here’s eight years of data.

• Worker satisfaction: 39% (2019) → 58% (2020) → 71% (2021) → 77% (2022) → 79% (2025). A 40-point improvement built over six years.

• Response time: 49 hours (2020) → 11 hours (2025). An 80% reduction in five years.

• Resolution rate: 99% every year since 2021, across 35,000–52,000 annual grievances.

• Worker Pulse favorable responses: 78% (2020) → 91% (2025) across 96 facilities in 13 countries.

Read the adidas WOVO case study or the eight-year longitudinal analysis to see the full evidence base.

One platform. Every major HRDD framework.

The same WOVO program that meets CSDDD requirements also supports compliance with Germany’s LkSG, France’s Duty of Vigilance Law, Norway’s Transparency Act, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and ESRS S2 reporting requirements.

EU CSDDD: Grievance mechanisms, stakeholder engagement, access to remedy, ongoing monitoring. Germany LkSG: Complaints procedure, risk assessment, preventive and remediation measures. France Duty of Vigilance: Effective alert and reporting mechanisms for affected parties. UN Guiding Principles: Principle 31-aligned grievance mechanism effectiveness criteria.

Why audits won’t get you there — and what CSDDD actually asks for.

Does our existing audit program satisfy CSDDD grievance mechanism requirements?

No. Social audits provide snapshots in time but do not satisfy CSDDD’s requirement for accessible, ongoing mechanisms that workers actively use. The directive requires evidence of usage, resolution, and worker satisfaction — data that audits do not generate. Read more: Operational grievance mechanisms: why utilisation matters

What’s the difference between a global helpline and a CSDDD-compliant grievance mechanism?

Global helplines satisfy a regulatory checkbox but rarely work in practice for supply chain workers who may lack private phone access, trust in the channel, or local language support. CSDDD requires effectiveness, not just existence. Read more: Grievance mechanisms: what the law requires and what actually works

How long does it take to deploy WOVO across a Tier 1 supply chain?

adidas achieved 100% Tier 1 coverage and was generating meaningful grievance data within its first year. Read the adidas 2025 case study for full deployment and outcome data.

Which industries use Labor Solutions for CSDDD compliance?

Labor Solutions works across apparel and footwear, electronics, FMCG, agriculture, seafood, and retail. Brands include adidas, Nike, H&M, Dell, Cisco, HP, Diageo, Carter’s, Puma, OVS, and Decathlon. See all case studies.

CSDDD compliance is a program management question, not a technology question.

The brands that will find CSDDD compliance straightforward are not necessarily the ones with the most workers or the most complex value chains. They are the ones that started building their evidence base early. WOVO gives you the tools, the data, and the documented outcomes to demonstrate effectiveness to regulators, investors, and auditors from day one.

Book a demo to see WOVO in action — or read the adidas case study to see what eight years of WOVO deployment looks like in practice.