This article explains the LkSG requirements for the three legal positions human rights, labour rights and environmental rights – each with definition, risk indicators, preventive measures and effectiveness control.

Relevant for the people who complete the self-disclosure and for everyone who assesses the answers in the Evaluation.

How to create the self-disclosure and the Evaluation in Tacto is explained in (3/5) Conduct the risk analysis.

Child labour refers to employment that is considered unacceptable because it impairs children's development, education or physical and mental health. It follows that the employment of people under the age of 18 generally requires specific justification.

ILO Convention No. 138 sets out various age limits:

All activities must not interfere with schooling or harm the health and development of children.

In general: The minimum age for entry into employment must not be below the age at which compulsory schooling ends and must be at least 15 years old. Light work may be carried out as long as it does not interfere with schooling and is not detrimental to health or development.

Transitional arrangements for countries with less developed economic and educational systems in accordance with ILO Convention No. 138:

Specific warning signs of possible child labour include

Prohibited activities for children, by definition persons under the age of 18 (due to their impact on health, safety and morals):

Companies should take stringent measures to check the age of potential employees and ensure that their working conditions comply with the legal requirements for minors.

Examples of preventive measures:

1. Identity verification: careful verification of identity documents at the time of recruitment to ensure that no minors are employed without appropriate conditions.

2. Monitoring of working conditions: Control of working hours and conditions for minors through digital and manual time recording systems to ensure that they comply with legal requirements.

File review: Regular review of personnel files and spot checks to ensure compliance with child labour legislation.

Forced labour means involuntary work which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty or other oppressive measures (e.g. in accordance with ILO Convention No. 29). It is prohibited under Article 8(3) of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Involuntariness is often difficult to recognise, which is why external circumstances, as described in the risk indicators, must be taken into account.

Specific warning signs of possible forced labour include

The following actions must be excluded in all cases and must not be threatened as a punishment:

Other prohibited practices include

Employment contracts: All employment contracts should be in writing and written in a language that employees can understand. This ensures clear communication and understanding of the terms of the contract.

Slavery is defined in the Geneva Convention on Slavery (Art. 1 No. 1) and in the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and practices Similar to Slavery. The prohibition of slavery and servitude is enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Art. 8 (1) and (2).

The boundaries between forced labour and slavery are blurred, which is why both forms of prohibited, involuntary labour should be considered together.

The following practices are among the forms of modern slavery:

Distinction and monitoring:

The risk indicators of forced labour can also provide indications of slavery and slavery-like practices.

In addition, attention must be paid to less tangible forms and aspects. These include, among others

The Global Slavery Index provides a worldwide overview of modern slavery: Global Slavery Index.

Employee interviews: Conducting regular and anonymous employee interviews to gain insights into working conditions and identify potential grievances at an early stage.

Occupational health and safety and labour rights: Implementation of measures that ensure the right to collective bargaining and fair wage structures, such as appropriate occupational health and safety guidelines.

Independent audits and employee surveys: Carry out independent audits and regular employee surveys to check the effectiveness of the protective measures and working conditions introduced.

In order to rule out forced evictions, the LkSG requires it to be ensured that all legitimate rights have been taken into account prior to the acquisition, development or other use of land, forests and waters and that all holders of these rights have given their consent or voluntarily disposed of these rights.

However, verification solely on the basis of registrations and formal written evidence is not necessarily sufficient. Land registers and cadastres are often limited to a few inner-city areas and rarely include land in rural areas. In addition, many states have declared areas as state property while local populations hold traditional rights that are often older than the nation. Therefore, special attention is required when purchasing and leasing state land.

Companies have a responsibility to check whether other individuals or groups besides the state have legitimate ownership, possession or utilisation rights to these areas (land, forests, water) and to respect them.

The priority is to check whether the company being analysed holds a legal title (purchase or right of use) to the land used and has paid compensation for this.

At the same time, however, it should be checked whether there is a high level of corruption in the public administration in the country in question - various indices on the estimated extent of corruption in different countries can be consulted for this purpose. This can indicate abuses and call into question the legitimacy of the title acquisition.

In addition, it can be analysed whether there are reports of protests against land use by a company or whether a company is using legal means to impede access to information.

A document register can be kept in the company to ensure effective land use rights. It should not only document the right of use itself, but also monitor and control compliance with the resulting obligations, such as interest payments, maintenance or dismantling after use.

To check effectiveness, the absence of public reports, but also of administrative decisions or court judgements on any non-compliance with obligations can be used as a basis.

The LkSG cites the following examples of non-compliance with health and safety requirements in particular:

Overall, the focus here is on whether fundamental protection standards (objectives and elements) of ILO Convention No. 155 and 187 have obviously been disregarded.

Missing or obviously inadequate local regulations on occupational health and safety cannot be used to justify missing or inadequate health and safety regulations under the LkSG.

Specific warning signs for possible violations of labour protection law include

Checking whether the standards applied comply with national law.

Ensuring that the standards applied in the company guarantee that the risk of occupational accidents or work-related health hazards is avoided or reduced (to the maximum extent possible in accordance with the state of the art).

Respect for freedom of association and freedom of unionisation means that employees are free to organise themselves into trade unions without suffering any disadvantages as a result.

This right also includes the rights to collective bargaining and strike action. However, it may be the case that these are restricted in some countries or regions by local law or court rulings on the balance between the parties to collective bargaining. In countries where freedom of association is not protected by constitution or law, or is even prohibited, the company should ensure that at least the representation of employees' interests within the company remains permissible as long as it is not prohibited by law.

Even today, the right to freedom of association or its enforcement is limited or non-existent in many countries around the world. It can be assumed that at least one of the following risk indicators occurs in the majority of countries.

Absence, incompleteness, violation or non-enforcement of:

The Global Rights Index provides information on the situation regarding the right to organise in a large number of countries. You can use this to assess whether violations of these rights are likely in the country of the location you are evaluating.

It can also be helpful to search for reports of repression or violence against trade unionists.

The implementation of clear policies that support and protect the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining is a fundamental preventative measure. In addition, it is advisable to communicate and enforce these policies throughout the supply chain.

Specific measures can include training and awareness programmes on the rights to form unions and to participate in collective bargaining. These should be offered to management as well as employees and workers.

Regular assessments can ensure that the rights to form and join a union are respected and practised within the company. A grievance mechanism can also enable employees and workers to report violations of their rights to freedom of association securely and anonymously.

The unequal treatment of employees that is not necessary for the requirements of employment, i.e. for reasons unrelated to work, is prohibited.

Possible discrimination criteria are (among others) the following:

Unequal treatment can affect all decisions in the employment relationship, including the following:

The risk indicators of unequal treatment are often not easy to identify and require more in-depth analysis. In general, the lack of compliance guidelines or training to raise awareness of the issue of (possibly unconscious) unequal treatment can indicate risks. In addition, media reports and information in reporting systems can provide information about possible risks.

To avoid unequal treatment, it is advisable to include a clear and explicit commitment to non-discrimination in company guidelines, e.g. in the compliance code or the code of conduct. This commitment should be communicated at all levels of the organisation and, ideally, approved.

The appropriate wage is primarily the minimum wage to be granted under the applicable law and is otherwise determined by the law of the place of employment.

If no minimum wage is stipulated in local regulations, then the appropriate wage is determined according to the requirements of the employee's local cost of living. As this wage level can be difficult to determine in individual cases, various living wage surveys can be used, e.g. https://livingcost.org/ or https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/cost-of-living-by-country.

However, the existence of a minimum wage does not necessarily guarantee that the requirements of an appropriate wage are met.

Based on the UN Social Covenant, an adequate wage is understood to be a wage that ensures an adequate standard of living for the wage earner and their family. An adequate standard of living includes food, water, shelter, education, medical care, transport, clothing and other basic needs, including provisions for unexpected events.

The withholding of an appropriate wage can be seen in close connection with child labour: Lack of income from dependants increases the risk that children will also have to contribute to family maintenance. Accordingly, increased reports of child labour in a region, population group or employment sector may indicate that the wage level of the adult workforce is also inadequate.

General income or poverty reports can also be used. Finally, attention should be paid to individual case reports on the withholding of appropriate wages. These can also occur completely independently of the general wage level in a state or region.

In order to determine and ensure an appropriate wage for the job or job group (which goes beyond covering the cost of living), a key measure is to systematically categorise pay levels (according to job field).

This can be done under collective law, but also on an individual company basis.

Publicly available wage and income indices, benchmarking and industry comparisons can be used to determine wage levels.

First and foremost, it can be helpful to scrutinise the contracts (by field of activity) and check that they are appropriately remunerated.

A dialogue with employees (if no collective legal structures are in place) may also be advisable.

The aforementioned surveys on ‘living wages’ then serve as a control and, if necessary, a corrective. The survey should be repeated or updated at regular intervals.

In order to protect and safeguard their interests - e.g. corporate values or the performance of activities in and of themselves - companies often employ their own, external or public security forces.

The lack of direct monitoring and influence means that the risks of human rights violations tend to be higher here. These can manifest themselves in torture or inhumane treatment, the endangerment and threat to life and limb, but also in the impairment of freedom of association or unionisation.

The most important indicators include media or individual reports that indicate that contracted security forces have already attracted attention due to inappropriate behaviour.

Equally relevant are indications of similar incidents in the respective economic sector or in the company's neighbourhood, as well as the existence of armed conflicts in the region in general.

Companies should take measures to ensure that the security forces they commission do not commit human rights violations:

Special risks: In areas of armed conflict, an increased risk of human rights violations by security forces is to be expected, which makes increased monitoring necessary.

Note: Legally, Section 2 (2) no. 9 LkSG is one of the human rights risks. In the questionnaire, the requirement is assigned to environmental rights.

The LkSG aims to protect the natural resources of rights holders by prohibiting harmful soil, air and water pollution as well as noise emissions and excessive water consumption, provided that this

Even if local exemptions exist, this shall not lead to the fact that a threat to livelihoods goes unnoticed or unpunished.

This includes, for example, emissions and pollution or the high water consumption of (officially authorised) industrial plants in the immediate vicinity of residential complexes, whose residents are exposed to negative consequences as a result.

Risk indicators can be found in reports of obvious irregularities. A high level of corruption in the public administration in general can also be an indicator of the potentially questionable legality of licences granted under local law.

However, such indications should have a high degree of concretisation (e.g. references to specific authorities) in order to allow a concrete risk to be assumed even without the external indications.

An environmental management system is generally the most effective instrument for protecting the natural foundations of life. It should systematically record and evaluate environmental risks from the respective business operations and define and monitor countermeasures. In this respect, the individual effectiveness checks must also be included in this environmental management system.

In addition to the effectiveness mechanisms to be integrated into an environmental management system, attention can also be paid to

With regard to the use of mercury, the LkSG refers to the Minamata Convention, which sets standards for the handling of mercury.

The Minamata Convention covers

of mercury and certain mercury-containing products.

The convention prohibits the construction of new mercury mines and its use in certain processes. In addition, mercury-containing waste may only be stored and disposed of under strict conditions.

In order to minimise emissions and releases of mercury from coal combustion and non-ferrous metal production, the contracting parties are obliged to use the best available techniques (BAT) and best environmental practices (BEP) in new plants. For old plants, this utilisation is voluntary.

In addition to industrial uses and integration into products, mercury is also used in small-scale gold mining and small-scale gold processing. Consequently, contracting parties (countries) with small-scale gold mining are obliged to take effective protective measures for those affected and to define these in a National Action Plan.

The distinction between industrial processes and small-scale gold mining is essential for the definition of measures.

Typical or traditional uses of mercury include

Mercury can also be released in industrial processes (e.g. coal combustion).

Attention is therefore required if the company purchases, manufactures or uses products that are listed in Annex II of EU Regulation No. 2017/852 (or Annex A of the Minamata Convention) or the company purchases gold that could originate from small-scale mining or processing.

An indicator of non-compliance with the requirements may also be if the company as a whole does not record whether and where mercury is used in its own business operations and by relevant suppliers.

The Minamata Convention has been signed or ratified by over 140 countries, including most countries in South America and many countries in Africa and South and Southeast Asia. This means that the requirements of the convention can generally be used as a standard for defining measures.

Every company should therefore set up a process to record whether and how it sources, manufactures or uses products listed in Annex II of EU Regulation No. 2017/852 (or Annex A of the Minamata Convention) or whether it uses or releases mercury in manufacturing processes. Such activities must always be excluded.

If, in exceptional cases, authorised uses of mercury are part of the business activity, all measures must be taken that appear appropriate and effective to avoid health and environmental hazards,

On-site inspections by independent third parties can be used to monitor effectiveness. If gold is processed, the ban on the use of mercury in small-scale gold mining and processing must be observed.

The LkSG regulates the handling of certain chemicals, in particular persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

According to the LkSG, the ‘handling’ of listed chemicals and POPs includes in particular

as defined by the conventions and resolutions referenced in the law.

POPs are chemical substances that remain in the environment for a long time after release, are difficult to degrade, accumulate in food chains and eventually reach concentrations that can have harmful effects on human health and the environment.

POPs include:

Following ratification by over 180 countries, the substances covered by the Stockholm Convention are banned and restricted almost worldwide with regard to the production, use, import and export of these substances or products containing these substances. The Convention also regulates unintentional releases from industrial processes. The aim is to prevent or at least minimise such releases by applying the best possible environmental technology.

The risks addressed in the POPs Convention occur primarily in the chemical industry and in pulp production, but also in agriculture and in the use of thermal processes (primarily in waste treatment/incineration, but also in metallurgy, for example).

In these sectors or in these activities, an indicator of non-compliance with the requirements of the POPs Convention may be if the company or the supplier concerned has not established a procedure to record whether and where POPs are produced, used or (unintentionally) released in its own business operations.

A substance management system is a powerful tool for the prevention and handling of POPs and POP-containing waste. This should systematically record, evaluate and track the substances and associated risks from the respective business operations so that their production or use can be avoided or restricted and, in the latter case, countermeasures can be taken if necessary.

In addition to the effectiveness mechanisms to be integrated into a substance management system, attention can also be paid to

The Basel Convention regulates the export of hazardous and other waste as well as its control and environmentally sound treatment. It restricts and monitors the transboundary movement of such waste. The definition of hazardous waste is based on Annex I of the Convention and can be supplemented by national or supranational laws.

Particular caution is required if a company or supplier operates in a country that is not a member of the Basel Convention. An indicator of non-compliance with the Convention may be the absence of a waste management system, especially if there are no procedures in place to identify types of waste and their proper disposal.

A waste management system is an effective tool for managing the handling of (hazardous) waste. It systematically records, evaluates and documents the types of waste and risks of the respective operation. Processes must ensure that waste is not transported across borders without the necessary authorisations and documents. Companies can also take measures to prevent waste and develop low-waste products.

Spot checks during collection and shipment help to monitor effectiveness.