Electric vehicles are a solution to combat climate change, but for the green energy transition to be a just transition it must not come at the price of exploiting workers and their communities.
Using public authorities’ purchasing power to hold companies accountable, Electronics Watch’s Low Emission Vehicle Programme (LEVP) works to uphold the rights of workers in vehicle supply chains. The LEVP equips public buyers with the resources and knowledge to drive their suppliers to produce and mine key components and minerals in a just way.
Worker-driven approach
Electronics Watch puts workers, and their rights and needs, at the centre of its monitoring and remediation activities. Its monitoring partners are civil society organisations located in production and extraction regions, who provide monitoring, awareness-raising and training for workers on fundamental labour rights and occupational health and safety. Wherever possible Electronics Watch works together with democratic trade unions at factory, regional, national and international levels. They are a central stakeholder in the worker-driven remediation processes that Electronics Watch facilitates.
LEVP monitoring focuses on cobalt, tin and nickel mines in DRC, Bolivia, Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as semiconductor factories in Taiwan, Malaysia and China, and battery manufacturing facilities in Hungary and Poland.
Public procurement leverage driving change
10 public bodies from six countries are participating in the LEVP: Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges (APUC) and Transport for London, UK; Amsterdam City Council, The Netherlands; Barcelona City Council and Metropolitan Transport of Barcelona, Spain; the City of Oslo, Norway; the Flemish Agency for Facility Operations, Belgium; Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), Hamburg Police, and Hamburger Hochbahn AG, Germany.
Established in 2022, the LEVP is a forum for learning and exchange on responsible procurement of electric vehicles. Participants meet regularly and receive quarterly reports on risks and violations in their supply chains. LEVP participants have already held 25 individual dialogue meetings with 10 vehicle manufacturers as part of an engagement process to establish supply chain transparency. These meetings help public buyers to understand human rights due diligence (HRDD) and introduce social sustainability practices in the supply chains of their electric vehicle suppliers.
For example, Electronics Watch helped Hamburg Police design the social criteria, contract performance conditions, and a communications plan for a recent passenger vehicle tender. The tender set clear expectations regarding how suppliers would be expected to comply. This has allowed them to establish an ongoing dialogue with suppliers that has built trust and an increasingly open exchange of information.
Another participant is BVG, the Berlin public transport agency. With almost 1600 buses, 1258 trains, 381 streetcars and 6 ferries, it is Germany’s biggest public transport company. BVG put out a tender with human rights due diligence included in the award criteria and a comprehensive catalogue of questions covering both the environment and human rights. The requirements and evaluation criteria were based on a risk assessment developed together with Electronics Watch.
BVG was pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction of the market towards its new human rights criteria, and received a similar number of offers to this innovative tender as it had to previous tenders without these challenging requirements. Dialogue between BVG and its chosen supplier has developed positively, with regular meetings on HRDD.
Impact for workers
One compelling example of the LEVP’s impact for workers comes from the high-altitude mines of Oruro, Bolivia, which provide tin for vehicle batteries and electronic components. Thanks to health and safety training Electronics Watch monitors provided, cooperative miners were able to avert tragedy when fire broke out near an explosives storage area. A member of the mine’s new safety committee – established as a result of the training – spotted smoke, and the miners were able to address the electrical fault, extinguish the fire, and avert a potentially catastrophic explosion. This incident illustrates the dangerous conditions workers face, and the life-saving impact of equipping them with the knowledge and tools they need to protect themselves.
Public procurement can have real leverage in the market, and can set the standard when it comes to HRDD with workers as a driving force. Electronics Watch calls on public authorities to use their influence to ensure that the pursuit of environmental goals does not come at the expense of workers and their rights.