As part of the United Nations Responsible Business Human Rights Forum – Asia and Pacific, GBL organized a side session on June 6, 2023. The theme of this year’s forum was “From Commitment to Action”. It aims to build on ongoing dialogue on the issues, challenges, and sectors the business and human rights community needs to act upon and what needs to be done to ensure commitments are put into action.
Our side session, in alignment with the theme, intended to bring to light the challenges related to lack of worker voice mechanisms while emphasizing technologically enabled solutions that facilitate worker voice, and showing a clear business case for the same.
The panel featured subject matter experts on worker well-being as well as corporate representatives who have used technology to resolve labour difficulties.
Following the discussion, the programme concluded with a special demonstration of Inache, a worker voice tool.
| Title: Championing Worker Voice: The role of technology in promoting worker wellbeing
| Date: June 6th 2023
Key Insights from the Session
- Businesses now recognize the importance of worker voice but to truly effect change, the solution has to improve the ability of employers to listen and respond to its workers
- Ensuring worker wellbeing extends beyond brand responsibility within global supply chains; it necessitates supplier engagement, as they are the direct employers. Balancing the brand-supplier relationship is crucial, fostering collaboration while considering external factors that impact power dynamics.
- Technology can be a powerful medium to achieve worker voice and can be efficient for business while empowering workers . However, it needs to be designed keeping the workers in mind. The benefits of leveraging technology for grievance redressal include improved accountability, immediacy and accessibility alongside using the data from digitization to further transparency in the supply chain.
Panelists
Sowmya Vinayagamurthy
Sowmya is focused on the welfare of the workers in the supply chain by exploring and implementing systems and methods that would create a safe environment for the people. With a combined experience of 14+ years in business and sustainability, she is passionate about creating a simple and seamless environment for people working at their jobs which primarily includes the way that they are being treated in the professional space & time.
Shruti Singh
Shruti is an advocate for sustainability, transparency, and climate justice within the fashion industry with over 14 years of experience in the industry. She is dedicated to promoting a fashion industry that is clean, safe, fair, transparent, and accountable. Under her leadership, the organization was honored with the prestigious Elle Sustainability Awards in 2023, recognizing their impactful contributions to eco-innovation and slow fashion.
Mamta Pimoli
Mamta has worked on multiple fronts in the development sector, including program implementation, partnerships, fundraising, and research over the last five years. In her current role, she is bringing technological transformation to workplace challenges, largely affecting low-income, underserviced workers. She is responsible for scaling the impact of GBL’s proven solutions, which improve well-being outcomes and business returns for workers and firms respectively.
Ayushi Ghosh
Ayushi‘s interdisciplinary education background sparked an interest in data-driven communications and change management. She served as a Resident Assistant at the University, which trained her as a first responder for students, including grievance resolution and directing them to redressal mechanisms. In her current role, Ayushi focuses on multi-stakeholder communications with workers, customers, and partner organizations with a core focus on worker well-being, CSR, and social programs at Shahi.
Moderator
Bethamehi Joy Syiem
Bethamehi has a wide experience in public sector consulting, having worked on India’s ‘One District One Product’ Initiative under the Ministry of Commerce & Industries. In her current role, she works on establishing critical partnerships, dissemination, and increasing the uptake of research-backed technology products developed at GBL. She also leads engagement on climate action-related projects.
Listen to the full discussion below:
Check out our LinkedIn post for insights from the panelists.
If questions still linger, drop us an email at info@goodbusinesslab.org.
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