Panel

From Worker Voice to Action: Turning worker engagement into better human rights decisions

ORGANIZED BY

Ulula (An EcoVadis Company), Pingtar

17-Sep

11:00-12:00

Conference Room 3

Engaging stakeholders through Worker voice is a critical component of effective human rights due diligence; yet many organizations struggle to translate worker feedback into meaningful action. This session explores how continuous worker engagement -particularly through collaborative, worker-centered initiatives and digital tools - can strengthen risk identification and support resilient supply chains.

Overview

Many organisations have strengthened their human rights due diligence commitments, yet translating meaningful worker engagement into day-to-day practice remains a common challenge. While worker voice is increasingly recognised as an important component of effective due diligence, organisations continue to explore how it can best complement existing processes and inform decision-making.

Bringing together speakers with diverse perspectives across the worker voice ecosystem, this session will focus on lessons learned from implementing collaborative worker engagement initiatives across different supply chain contexts. Through practical experiences from the field, speakers will share what has worked, where challenges remain, and how collaboration can help build trusted channels for workers to raise concerns and provide feedback.

Drawing on implementation experience from diverse supply chain contexts, the panel will share practical examples of how organisations have built trusted worker engagement mechanisms, fostered meaningful participation, responded to worker feedback, and integrated worker voice into their human rights due diligence processes. Discussions will touch on issues affecting migrant workers, workplace safety, and power imbalances linked to gender and other vulnerabilities, offering practical reflections and lessons learned that participants can adapt within their own worker engagement and human rights due diligence programmes.

Why it matters

Many organisations have strengthened their Human Rights Due Diligence commitments, yet meaningful worker engagement remains one of the most difficult aspects to implement in practice. Building on the experiences shared in this session, participants will gain practical lessons and diverse perspectives to help strengthen worker engagement, support more responsive decision-making, and bridge the gap between HRDD commitments and implementation.

Key questions

What does meaningful worker engagement look like in practice across different supply chain contexts?
How do organisations build trust with workers and create channels that encourage meaningful participation?
How can worker feedback be integrated into existing human rights due diligence processes to support better decision-making and remediation?
What lessons from implementation can organisations adapt to strengthen their own worker engagement programmes?

Who should attend?

Human rights, sustainability and responsible sourcing professionals, brands, suppliers, implementing partners, NGOs, development agencies, and anyone interested in strengthening worker engagement in supply chains.

What participants will gain

How global and local insights complement each other in human rights due diligence.
Practical examples of translating worker voice into actionable insights for risk identification and supplier engagement.
Ideas for building more responsive, evidence-based human rights due diligence through continuous worker engagement.

Additional resources

www.pingtar.com, https://resources.ecovadis.com/ecovadis-solution-materials/ecovadis-worker-voice-connect-brochure

Amelia Smith

Partner, Humantics

Amelia Smith is a Partner at Humantics, where she works with brands and other organisations to tackle human rights risks in global supply chains through worker voice, investigations, remediation, and systems that centre workers' experiences. With more than a decade of experience, she has worked with multinational companies, industry initiatives, NGOs, and development organisations on labour rights, responsible recruitment, and worker voice programmes. Amelia has led the design of worker engagement strategies and architected several multi-stakeholder and independent third-party grievance mechanisms, helping organisations build trusted channels through which workers can raise concerns and access remedy. She regularly advises companies on labour rights risks, human rights due diligence, and the practical implementation of effective worker voice and grievance systems.

Arvinda Tripradopo

CEO, Pingtar

Arvinda Tripradopo is Founder and CEO of Pingtar, where he works at the intersection of technology, worker engagement, and responsible business. He leads the development of digital approaches that help organisations reach frontline and underserved workers, using accessible channels such as WhatsApp to deliver learning, gather worker voice, and identify emerging social and workplace risk signals.

With more than two decades of experience in digital strategy, technology, and communications, Arvinda has worked with businesses, international organisations, and development partners across a range of sectors. His recent work focuses on human rights due diligence, gender-based violence and harassment, occupational safety and health, grievance mechanisms, and other challenges affecting workers in complex supply chains.

Through Pingtar, he focuses on translating worker engagement into practical and actionable insights, exploring how simple technology can help organisations move beyond one-way communication and better understand what workers actually experience on the ground.

Izzati Rahman

Senior Manager, Ulula, an Ecovadis Company

Izzati Rahman is Senior Manager, Client Services for Asia Pacific at Ulula, an EcoVadis company, where she oversees client engagements across the region. A former litigator in Malaysia, she moved into sustainability and responsible business around a decade ago, bringing a legal perspective to human rights and sustainable practices. Her experience includes work in sustainable palm oil, as well as leading international projects across sectors ranging from agriculture to garment manufacturing. At Ulula, she works with clients and partners to address complex social and human rights challenges across diverse operating contexts. Izzati’s experience sits at the intersection of law and sustainability, with a focus on translating principles and commitments into practical approaches that reflect the realities of different industries across Asia Pacific.

Sung In Marshall

Director, Social and Environmental Affairs, Adidas

Sung In Marshall is Director of Upstream Supply Chain Assurance in the Social & Environmental Affairs team at adidas. She leads initiatives to strengthen human rights, social, environmental, and health & safety assurance across the upstream supply chain, beyond Tier 1. Her work focuses on human rights due diligence, forced labor prevention, responsible recruitment, and supply chain transparency. Prior to this role, she led adidas' modern slavery and migrant worker programs, including initiatives to improve responsible recruitment practices and address forced labor risks in complex global supply chains. She brings a strong practice-based perspective on advancing human rights through industry collaboration and responsible business practices.