Spain and Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence: What’s Changed—and What Companies Should Do Now
- Mar 1, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 23
In early 2022, Spain signaled a shift toward mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence. The Spanish government’s Plan Normativo 2022 included a proposal for a national law requiring transnational companies to conduct due diligence across their value chains—an agenda supported by civil society and unions, including Plataforma por Empresas Responsables. (Plataforma por Empresas Responsables)
Since then, the regulatory landscape has moved quickly. The biggest change is that mandatory due diligence is no longer only a national policy debate—it is now anchored in EU law.
The EU baseline is now set: CSDDD is law
The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive—Directive (EU) 2024/1760—was adopted in June 2024 and published in the Official Journal in July 2024. It establishes a due diligence framework requiring in-scope companies to identify, prevent, mitigate, and bring to an end adverse human rights and environmental impacts through appropriate measures, including stakeholder engagement and grievance mechanisms. (EUR-Lex)
That matters for Spain for two reasons:
Spain (like other Member States) must align national implementation with the Directive through transposition and enforcement. (EUR-Lex)
For many companies operating in Spain or selling into the EU, the practical question is no longer whether due diligence expectations are coming—but how quickly they can build systems that work in practice.
What Spain’s 2022 push signaled
Spain’s 2022 plan—supported by civil society and unions—outlined the building blocks of a modern mandatory due diligence law, including:
due diligence across the value chain, with prevention, mitigation, and remedy
participation of unions and civil society (including collective action on behalf of victims)
sanctions for failure to comply
strengthened access to justice for affected people and communities (Plataforma por Empresas Responsables)
This aligns closely with the direction of EU policy, which increasingly emphasizes effectiveness, accountability, and real access to remedy, not just disclosure.
What companies should do now (regardless of how Spain’s national law evolves)
Whether companies are preparing for EU-level obligations, Spanish implementation, or buyer expectations, the most resilient approach is to treat HRDD as an operating capability, not a policy exercise.
Here are the practical actions that matter most:
Build worker-informed risk assessment—not audit-only risk assessment
Periodic audits can be useful, but they have known blind spots (timing, sampling, and management-filtered information). Strong due diligence requires risk assessment that is grounded in lived experience and updated often enough to catch emerging risks.
What “good” looks like:
ongoing worker input (surveys, structured feedback loops, grievance data)
triangulation across data sources (audit + worker voice + supplier performance)
documented prioritization and action tracking over time
This approach is consistent with international expectations that companies understand impacts by engaging affected stakeholders.
Ensure operational grievance mechanisms are known, trusted, and used
Under the UN Guiding Principles, companies are expected to establish or participate in operational-level grievance mechanisms—and effectiveness is a core requirement, not a nice-to-have. Low grievance volume is not proof of low risk. (EUR-Lex)
What to test (not assume):
Do workers know the channels exist?
Can they access them regardless of literacy, language, or technology constraints?
Do they trust the mechanism enough to use it without retaliation fears?
Does the mechanism lead to timely and appropriate outcomes?
Is there evidence of remedy and prevention of recurrence?
Make remedy real: close the loop and prevent recurrence
Modern due diligence expectations are not satisfied by “intake” alone. Companies need evidence of:
investigation and case handling
remediation actions taken
escalation pathways for serious harms
systemic fixes and prevention (training, policy change, supplier capacity building)
Document effectiveness (because scrutiny is increasing)
Regulators, buyers, investors, and civil society increasingly evaluate whether systems function in practice. That means companies should be able to show:
participation metrics (who is reached, where gaps remain)
response and resolution timelines
recurring themes and systemic issues
corrective action completion and follow-up
how findings informed sourcing, remediation, and prevention decisions
Why this matters in Spain right now
Spain’s 2022 proposal reflected growing public and institutional pressure to move from voluntary commitments to enforceable standards—supported by coalitions like Plataforma por Empresas Responsables. (Plataforma por Empresas Responsables)
Now that the EU has codified a due diligence framework via Directive (EU) 2024/1760, the practical implication for companies is clear: prepare for due diligence as a normal operating requirement—and focus on mechanisms that work in the real world, especially for rights holders.
What to do now
Businesses can proactively remediate human rights risks by developing holistic ecosystem to promote mandatory supply chain due diligence. To find out more about how Labor Solutions can leverage our decade of human rights risk assessment experience to support your business, get in touch at info@laborsolutions.tech.
For practical examples of how this can be operationalized through worker engagement and grievance systems, explore the adidas case studies:
