Final approval of European due diligence directive a milestone to celebrate

After years of deliberations and heated negotiations, EU Ministers today finally approved the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) marking a new era for corporate accountability. Reaching this milestone was a hard-won step forward from the persistent efforts of trade unions, civil society and progressive MEPs.

The directive unlocks new possibilities to ensure that all companies with a significant footprint in Europe – whether headquartered in the EU or abroad – must respect the human rights of workers around the world. The reach of the estimated 5,400 companies in scope will include millions of workers across their global operations, their subcontractors, their subsidiaries, and workers throughout their global value chains.

Alongside ushering in mandatory human rights due diligence across this vast reach, it also introduces new provisions that go beyond existing national due diligence legislation. Most critically, it embeds a role for trade unions throughout every step of the due diligence process. It also introduces the possibilities of enforcement through a mix of measures including supervisory authorities, which can receive complaints and is the first due diligence legislation to introduce, civil liability, although limited in its reach.

National trade unions in Europe must pressure their governments to set a strong legislative floor to ensure robust national legislation, including to close some of the gaps in the directive.

Oliver Roethig, UNI Europa Regional Secretary, said: “It is a significant milestone to at long last have the CSDDD passed at the EU level. The directive demonstrates important leadership from the EU to protect workers’ rights, despite the limitations. Trade unions across Europe will now be alert to ensure that national legislation not only robustly implements the directive, but seizes opportunities to raise the bar further.”

Christy Hoffman, UNI Global Union General Secretary, added: “This is an enormous and hard-fought win which will especially benefit workers in those countries with weak or non-existent laws to protect workers. The contractors for Amazon, for example, will finally have an avenue through which to seek justice. The workers producing garments for global brands will be able to bring claims within the EU. For UNI Global Union the implementation and enforcement of this law will become a major priority.”