The second workshop held during the International Event in Murcia, on June 12, was entitled “Addressing systemic problems through sector grievance mechanisms”.
This workshop was organized by the Ethical Trade Forums in conjunction with apellando, and was attended by 20 people.
The aim of the workshop was to promote a participatory and critical discussion on the real challenges faced by migrant workers in the Spanish agri-food sector, especially in relation to access to and the effectiveness of mechanisms for handling grievances and complaints. It also seek to debate possible solutions to the barriers identified, promoting concrete proposals for improvement from within the industry, the use of existing tools, and multi-stakeholder collaboration.
Based on the work carried out during the workshop, the main conclusions involve the need to:
- Test the welcome packs to ensure that employees understand the information shared with them, as sometimes so much information is shared that it is difficult for them to understand all the company’s procedures and protocols.
- Promote training for middle managers on team leadership.
- Communicate more clearly the stages of the process and how the outcome of their grievance/complaint will be communicated, in order to generate more confidence in the tool.
- Reinforce the importance of the origin of cases.
- Ensure accessibility to unions and representatives.
Some of the proposals for improvement that were discussed in the workshop were:
- Share more experiences from other companies and disseminate best practices, promoting cooperation within the sector.
- Provide more training on these issues and give workers greater access to people they can talk to in confidence.
- Actively involving workers, asking for their opinions and participation, and encouraging continuous contact and multi-stakeholder collaboration.
- Promoting producer responsibility by showing clear benefits.
Based on what was discussed during the workshop, and in order to put into practice the conclusions reached during the day, some steps to be taken were proposed, including: Implementing practical and accessible training, Disseminating results and best practices in the value chain, Promoting spaces for active listening and real representation of workers, Evaluating how technological tools, including AI, can strengthen grievance and complaint mechanisms.
