Did you know?

• In Brunei, Workers suffering unfair and unsafe working conditions say they "have no one to turn to," that "none of our concerns are even considered," and that "the problem is management itself."
• Verité has found workers in Mexico and China who have been sexually and verbally abused or fired for complaining about the way they are treated in the factory.
• Verité found that workers were denied drinking water in a factory in Vietnam.
• Verité is solving hidden workplace abuses by providing Clear Voice hotline services for workers who have nowhere to turn.

The Problem. Many workers around the world - disproportionately young women and migrant laborers - have no one to turn to when they encounter dangerous working conditions, when their passports are withheld by employers so they can't return home, when their wages are underpaid, or when they are harassed or abused by supervisors. Even when companies attempt to investigate their supply chains, too often workers are intimidated, coached, or kept away from 'social auditors' sent to assess conditions. The result is that companies are unaware of workers' real problems and therefore, less able to address them.

The Solution. Verité is using technology in an innovative way to ensure workers have a voice. Through a new partnership with Clear Voice hotline service, an independent social enterprise, workers now have a mechanism through which to express grievances, reveal mistreatment, and talk about conditions with an independent third party. Workers use SMS text email and mobile phone calls to report workplace grievances to Clear Voice case workers. Case workers log grievances, conduct detailed interviews with the workers, and relay the nature of the problems to factory management and, in some cases, the multinational buyer of goods from that factory. The information collected is used to inform trainings for factory management, to monitor the progress made in addressing workplace issues, and to create effective and sustainable solutions. To close the loop, factories report back to Clear Voice once the problem has been resolved.

Clear Voice was launched in Latin America and China in 2007. Verité's partnership covering Taiwan began in 2008. At the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative, Verité committed to aggressively expand with Clear Voice to the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and South Korea within five years. During our first phase we have helped resolve a wide range of workers' complaints, from underpayment of wages to sexual harassment.

Verité has been giving voice to workers since our inception in 1996. Technology offers the chance to magnify our capacity and our impact.

For more information visit http://www.clearvoicehotline.net/