The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and Human Rights: Ensuring Due Diligence in Labor Practices

On July 25, 2024, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) enters into force, aiming to foster responsible business practices among large corporations and enhance accountability for human rights and environmental adverse impacts through their supply chains. Under the Directive, large corporations are legally required to conduct risk-based human rights due diligence. This involves undertaking measures to prevent, mitigate and address any actual and potential adverse impacts caused by their operations, subsidiaries, and supply chain business partners. Consequently, companies must integrate due diligence and impact assessment policies into their risk management systems to ensure respect for human rights protected in international human rights conventions. Given that this obligation extents to supply chain activities, workers’ rights are significant area of human rights risks, especially in global supply chains, that due diligence activities must address. This paper examines the complexity of due diligence obligation for companies, with a focus on defining human rights due diligence, particularly in the context of labor rights. Drawing on the CSDDD, it explains the critical elements of due diligence in a labor rights context, especially concerning certain groups of workers at the greatest risks of human rights abuses, such as posted and seasonal workers. Finally, the article explores whether the effectiveness of due diligence under the CSDDD can be reliably assessed, and thus the overall potential of the legislation to compel corporations to respect human rights. Keywords: due diligence, corporation, labor rights, human rights, accountability