Recommendations for trade unions & workers' representatives involvement

Local organisations (including trade unions, governments and/or NGO’s) that calculate living wage benchmarks can apply to get IDH recognized if they meet the criteria.

We advise for an active participation of unions/workers representatives when companies fill and submit the Salary Matrix

We advice for HR to fill the Salary Matrix and to share with unions/worker representatives for them to check the aggregated results.

Local unions/workers representatives should be informed on how a living wage benchmark is chosen as input on the Salary Matrix.

As included in the ‘’Guidelines for verifying wages and living wage gaps’’, an active participation of unions/workers representatives is recommended during the Salary Matrix verification, including the verification of the in-kind benefits added into the Salary Matrix.

Unions/workers representatives should be involved in the discussions to improve wages

We recommend that companies consider including projects that actively enhance social dialogue across their living wage work.

The living wage work should not limit local bargaining power or CBAs. Union org. could use the Salary Matrix in their toolkits to support unions

Union organizations will be one of the targeted audiences to share learnings with.

Respecting Trade Union Rights in Global Value Chains: Practical Approaches for Businesses

Mondiaal FNV & Shift, 2019

“Businesses today recognize both the business and social imperative of respecting human rights throughout their global value chains. This includes the expectation that they respect core labour rights, including freedom of association and collective bargaining […] Yet, when it comes to taking action, many companies still struggle to identify and implement meaningful action to address identified risks to trade union rights in their global value chains.”

See complete publication here.