ESRS S2 Workers in the Value Chain
Ten labour rights sub-topics, four assessment types and a complete due diligence cycle: preeco | sustainability maps supplier assessments, findings, corrective actions and complaint cases audit-ready. Risk levels are calculated automatically and severity-weighted, and status histories remain immutably documented.
ESRS S2 Value Chain Workers
Due diligence along the entire value chain
The S2 module covers the disclosure requirements on workers in the value chain — from the materiality assessment through supplier assessments and due diligence documentation to engagement, grievance mechanisms, policies and targets. Regulatory references to the European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, the UN Guiding Principles, the ILO core conventions, the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act and the EU Forced Labour Regulation are built in throughout.
Double materiality assessment
Ten sub-topics — from working conditions, equal treatment, health and safety and training and development through forced labour, child labour and freedom of association to adequate pay, water and sanitation and other labour rights — are captured per value chain tier and worker category, including migrant workers, informally employed workers, subcontractor workers and homeworkers. AI-supported impact detection with geographically calibrated risk assessment and an AI-supported severity benchmark support the evaluation. The human rights salience rule, an approval workflow, the materiality matrix and a completeness check are part of the module.
Supplier assessments
Four assessment types are available: self-assessment, on-site audit, document review and third-party audit. Findings carry a type (non-conformity, observation, good practice), four severity levels, an assignment to the ten labour rights sub-topics and a regulatory reference — including the European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, the UN Guiding Principles, the ILO core conventions, the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act and the EU Forced Labour Regulation. Corrective actions are standalone records with priority, due date, overdue flag and their own lifecycle up to verified status, including completion date, evidence and verification notes; the status of a finding is derived from them automatically. Open non-conformities feed an automatic, severity-weighted risk assessment together with a classification of the risk level according to the highest severity level encountered.
Due diligence documentation
Due diligence processes are documented with six process types — including risk identification, prevention and mitigation, remediation, effectiveness monitoring and stakeholder engagement — plus scope, geographic coverage, affected parties, responsible role, frequency, regulatory basis and review dates. Risk identification records carry severity, sub-topic, value chain tier and affected worker category through a mitigation lifecycle from identified to mitigated or accepted. Remedial actions are typed as corrective, preventive, compensatory or systemic and run through to verification. Effectiveness monitoring works with metric definitions of baseline, target and actual value plus a series of measurements from which the trend is recalculated automatically: improving, stable, deteriorating or insufficient data.
Engagement along the value chain
Engagement records capture eight activity types — one-on-one meeting, focus group, survey, workshop, joint audit, third-party audit, consultation meeting and other — with stakeholder groups including homeworkers, platform workers and smallholders, value chain tier and effectiveness assessment. Complaint cases receive an automatically assigned reference number and are tracked across eight intake channels, eleven categories, four severity levels and a complainant category including anonymous. Status tracking runs from received through under review, under investigation and escalated to closed, supplemented by withdrawn and inadmissible — with enforced transition rules and an immutable status history; complaints cannot be deleted. Closure covers the resolution description, notification of the reporting person, satisfaction rating and lessons learned; for anonymous reports, the notification date and satisfaction rating are not recorded by the system.
Policies, engagement and grievance mechanisms
Policies are maintained in six types, among them supplier code of conduct, modern slavery and forced labour, and prevention of child labour — each flagged as a standalone document or as part of a parent document with section reference, complemented by indicators for the respect of human and labour rights, for enabling engagement and remediation, and for forced labour, child labour and human trafficking. Engagement processes are described with responsible function and hierarchical level, global framework agreements and measures to involve vulnerable groups. Grievance and remediation channels add the remediation approach, available channels, availability at the supplier workplace, follow-up, standard alignment, awareness-raising measures and an indicator for an existing anti-retaliation policy. Where no process or channel exists, that can be stated with a reason and a planned time horizon.
Targets and actions
Actions are available in six types, and targets carry details of the assurance provider and assurance standard; both can be linked to one another and optionally coupled to material sub-topics. The statement on the absence of targets is provided automatically per organisation for all organisations within the reporting boundary — with a justification and a mandatory description of effectiveness tracking. As soon as a target is activated, it is removed automatically.
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