Integrating Gender Equality into HRDD:
A Practical Guide for Trade Unions
Gender equality is often overlooked in Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HRDD). Mondiaal FNV’s new guidance note provides practical tools for trade unions and civil society to strengthen HRDD, ensuring protections against discrimination, wage gaps, and gender-based violence in global workplaces.
Mondiaal FNV’s new guidance note, Gender and Intersectionality: An HREDD Guidance Note for Trade Unions, provides practical tools to strengthen HRDD processes and ensure that gender equality becomes a fundamental part of corporate accountability --> download.
Why Gender and Intersectionality Matter in HRDD
Traditional HRDD often fails to recognize the unique risks women and marginalized workers face in global supply chains. Gender inequalities in the workplace are not isolated issues—they intersect with race, class, disability, migration status, and other factors, creating layered vulnerabilities.
For example, a migrant woman worker may not only experience wage discrimination due to her gender but also face exclusion from leadership roles, unsafe working conditions, or a lack of maternity rights. Addressing these challenges requires a gender-transformative approach that tackles the root causes of discrimination rather than simply mitigating its symptoms.
How HRDD Can Advance Gender Equality
The guidance note outlines key instruments that trade unions and civil society can use to push for gender-responsive due diligence at every stage of corporate accountability:
- Gender-Responsive Risk Assessment & Data Collection
- Ensure companies collect and analyze gender-disaggregated data on wages, working conditions, and discrimination.
- Identify hidden risks, such as the undervaluation of women’s work, exposure to gender-based violence, and lack of maternity protection.
- Stronger Collective Bargaining & Workplace Policies
- Negotiate binding agreements on equal pay, non-discrimination, and workplace protections in collective bargaining agreements (CBAs).
- Demand gender-responsive occupational safety measures, such as protections for pregnant workers, safe transport, and anti-harassment policies.
- Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement
- Ensure women’s voices are heard in company HRDD consultations and decision-making processes.
- Strengthen alliances between trade unions, women’s organizations, and labor rights groups to amplify worker concerns.
- Effective Grievance & Remediation Mechanisms
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Advocate for safe and accessible complaint systems that protect workers from retaliation.
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Push companies to implement transparent pay reporting and clear action plans to address gender inequalities
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The Role of Trade Unions in Driving Change
Trade unions play a critical role in ensuring that HRDD is not just a compliance exercise but a tool for systemic change. By embedding gender and intersectionality into their strategies, unions can:
- Hold companies accountable for gender-based risks in their supply chains.
- Empower women leaders within unions and workplace negotiations.
- Ensure HRDD policies move beyond box-ticking to create real, lasting improvements in worker rights.
Building a Fairer Future Together
Mondiaal FNV is at the forefront of this movement, organizing HRDD trainings for trade unions and civil society organizations. These trainings equip participants with the knowledge and tools to integrate gender equality into HRDD, ensuring stronger protections for workers everywhere.
HRDD should not only identify risks but actively transform workplaces into fair, inclusive environments. By making gender and intersectionality central to due diligence, we can bridge the gap between policy and real-world impact.
Learn more about our HRDD training initiatives and be part of the movement for fair, safe, and gender-equal workplaces.
