In a new report published today, Germanwatch and Misereor show how the German Supply Chain Act (LkSG), which has been in force since 2023, works in practice and is used by people around the world to defend their rights. At the same time, however, the authors warn that the recently announced weakening of the law could significantly limit its effectiveness.
"Whether in the transport sector in Germany, to enforce trade union freedom in Turkey or with regard to raw material extraction in West Africa: people and companies around the world are already successfully using the Supply Chain Act to take action against human rights violations. In West Africa, for example, German companies have for the first time started to work with local partners to initiate measures against the highly problematic environmental consequences of bauxite mining," comments Finn Schufft, author of the study and corporate responsibility officer at Germanwatch.
The Supply Chain Act is an important instrument for lorry drivers, for example, whose rights are also repeatedly violated in Germany - for example by withholding wages to which they are entitled. "With the Supply Chain Act, we can hold the often influential contracting companies accountable in order to prevent violations by their suppliers. In this way, lorry drivers will finally receive the wages they are entitled to in many cases," explains Anna Weirich, who advises affected drivers as sector coordinator at the Fair Mobility Network.
Another example is the enforcement of trade union freedom in the supply chains of German companies: "The Supply Chain Act has opened new doors for us when it comes to workers being able to organise in trade unions," says Alke Boessiger, Deputy General Secretary at the global trade union federation UNI Global. "Our member unions in Turkey have already successfully used the law to take action against anti-union campaigns by German companies in numerous cases and have thus been able to achieve better working conditions in collective bargaining."
However, the results also show that recent proposals to weaken the supply chain law could jeopardise many of the successes described. "With the amendment to the Supply Chain Act, the German government wants to remove sanctions in the event that companies fail to analyse their human rights risks and the effectiveness of their countermeasures. The preventative effect of the law would be massively weakened - and human rights violations would become more likely," warns Armin Paasch, responsible business consultant at Misereor.
More than 20 experts from trade unions, associations, companies and civil society organisations who work with the Supply Chain Act were interviewed for the study.
The Bundestag is currently debating the planned amendment to the German Supply Chain Act. Just last week, some industry associations called for the law to be completely suspended.
