The Omnibus package published yesterday by the European Commission seriously undermines the objectives of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the EU Taxonomy.
The proposed amendments significantly weaken human rights directives aimed at ensuring corporate accountability and social and environmental justice. The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive was only adopted in May 2024 and established clear obligations for companies to address actual and potential human rights and environmental impacts in relation to their own operations, the operations of their subsidiaries and the operations of their business partners.
Victims of business-related human rights abuses were given the right to hold companies accountable in EU courts. For the first time in history, following EFFAT’s mobilisation, EU legislation established obligations also for companies operating through franchise systems.
These directives are crucial to defend workers’ rights and tackle environmental degradation particularly in EFFAT’s sectors, which rely on very long and complex supply and subcontracting chains as well as franchise networks.
If the proposed changes will go through, these directives would lose their spirit and become little more than useless tools. The proposed changes include:
- Limiting the scope of due diligence: Companies would only have to assess risks in direct suppliers with more than 500 employees, ignoring human rights and environmental abuses deeper in their supply chains.
- Removing civil liability at EU level: This means encouraging corporate impunity, as victims of corporate abuse would find it difficult to seek justice. Civil liability may be possible in some countries but not in others, depending on existing national legal systems.
- Eliminating representative actions by trade unions and NGOs: Member States will no longer be obliged to ensure that NGOs, Trade unions or Human Rights institutions can represent victims of corporate abuse in court, making access to justice more difficult for victims and undermining trade union power of representation.
- Undermining enforcement: Due diligence is no longer a continuous obligation, but can now only be carried out every 5 years. In addition, the new text removes the obligation to use termination of a business relationship as a last resort as part of a due diligence process.
- Setting a maximum standard: The CS3D should have established a minimum level playing field for business and workers to avoid unfair competition, not a maximum standard. With the proposed changes the Commission is undermining the EU law principle of “non-regression”.
Enrico Somaglia, EFFAT General Secretary, commenting on the Omnibus package said: “Dismantling the EU Diligence laws will not empower EU competitiveness as the Commission is trying to explain. That is false and misleading. It would only seriously undermine efforts to protect workers’ rights and tackle environmental destruction. And the most vulnerable would once again be the ones to pay the price.”
Virginie Demoucron, EFFAT Political Secretary responsible for Tourism, said: “The Due Diligence Directives are potential game changers for workers employed in the EFFAT sectors, including those in complex corporate structures and franchise networks. These are the workers whose rights are all too often violated and ignored. We will not give up our fight to combat corporate impunity.”
EFFAT has taken part in a number of actions to defend the Due Diligence Directives. Our mobilisation will continue in the months to come.
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