Remedy
When harm occurs as a result of activities carried out by your business, you have a responsibility to put it right. This requirement is acknowledged in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, embedded in the ETI Base Code and increasingly reflected in emerging regulation – but in practice, it remains one of the least developed areas of corporate human rights work.
Remedy goes further than simply resolving complaints. It asks businesses to restore people to where they would have been had the harm not occurred – or as close to that as is possible. That might mean compensation, restitution, rehabilitation, policy change, or a combination of these. What it requires, always, is a process that takes affected people seriously and involves them meaningfully in determining what an adequate outcome looks like.
How we help
Many organisations have grievance mechanisms in place but have given less thought to what happens after a concern is raised and upheld. The remediation pathway – who decides what remedy is appropriate, how it is delivered, who bears the cost, how outcomes are tracked – is often underdeveloped. This is the gap we help businesses to address.
We work with companies across sectors to develop remediation approaches that are proportionate, credible and grounded in the perspectives of those affected. We also support organisations navigating live remediation situations, where the immediate priority is getting the response right for the people involved.
What this involves
- Remediation policy and process development
- Guidance on remedy standards and international frameworks
- Support for live or historic remediation situations
- Engagement with affected workers and communities on remedy outcomes
- Integration of remediation into broader grievance mechanism design
- Internal accountability and tracking frameworks
