Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism

Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism is one of the various options made available to individuals and organisations wishing to report or complain about the actions of a Bonsucro Member. For more information on how the new GM was developed, click here.

 

Bonsucro appointed the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution to administer the
Grievance Mechanism. For more information, or to raise a complaint, please contact CEDR.

Documents

Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism Rules

English, Spanish, Portuguese

 

Cases submitted through the Grievance Mechanism

Case Tracking NumberRespondent member information (a) Complainant information (a)Region (a)Scoping decision (b) Relevant Standards (c)GM steps completion date
DR31097IndustrialTrade UnionLatin AmericaOut of scopeNot applicable05/11/2020 Complaint received by CEDR
BON32159TraderIndividualEuropeOut of scopeNot applicable18/06/2021 Complaint received by CEDR
BON32713Azucarera del Norte S.A. de C.V (AZUNOSA)Sindicato de Trabajadores de La Industria del Azúcar, Alcohol, Mieles y Similares de Honduras (SITIAMASH)Latin AmericaIn scopeBonsucro Production Standard V4.2: Principle 2, Criteria 2.1, Indicators 2.1.3 ; 2.1.4, and
ILO Conventions 98, Art 1, para 2 and Convention 111
15/09/2023 Closed – adjudicator decided no breach occurred

Please note:

a) Bonsucro will only publish Complainant and Respondent Member names when applicable conditions are met in line with Bonsucro’s Grievance Mechanism rules. This includes any information which would allow “jigsaw identification” to occur whereby the identity could be established through other pieces information. For more information, please refer to section 17 Transparency, section 18 Confidentiality and section 19 Data protection.

b) For more information on scoping decision and the basis on which a complaint might be considered out of scope, please refer to section 7 Initial Scoping Assessment.

c) Information displayed does not mean any determination has been made on whether there has been a breach of the relevant standards.


Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism FAQs

Having an effective Grievance Mechanism is essential for proactive compliance, risk management and remediation. It also demonstrates the credibility of Bonsucro to stakeholders, including ISEAL and the European Commission (EU RED accreditation).

Bonsucro wanted to take proactive steps to improve its Grievance Mechanism to align it with the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGP) on Business and Human Rights, Effectiveness Criteria. Bonsucro worked with DLA Piper, an international law firm,  to build a framework, that:​

  • ensures predictability and transparency
  • engaged with stakeholders during the design to ensure legitimacy and credibility
  • provides measures and guidance to promote accessibility, appropriate to Bonsucro’s size and resources
  • includes a regular review process to ensure continuous learning
  • clarifies the interaction with certification bodies and the certification process when applicable.

Bonsucro’s Grievance Mechanism was assessed by DLA Piper. In person and online consultations were then conducted with stakeholders which helped the Secretariat and Members Council to build a framework and uncover the key topics and ideas for the review.

The Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism Rules document went out for an eight-week public consultation. This included engagement with stakeholders, including civil society organisations and those representing the interests of potentially affected stakeholder groups.

The Bonsucro Secretariat used the feedback to launch the Grievance Mechanism and define a plan to improve awareness raising, capacity building, funding, and accessibility.

The Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism is part of a wider ecosystem in place at Bonsucro to listen and respond to concerns raised by individuals and/or organisations.

There are many ways to flag and investigate a concern before lodging a formal complaint with the Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism. Bonsucro has detailed the range of options stakeholders can use to raise any substantive concerns about a Bonsucro member, a licensed certification body or Bonsucro’s services. This can be found on Bonsucro’s website here.

There was overwhelming support from stakeholders that Bonsucro’s Grievance Mechanism was developed to offer mediation and to have a fair and independent process to determine the validity of allegations made and any action to be taken as a result.

For this reason, Bonsucro decided to partner with the Centre for Effect Dispute Resolution (CEDR). CEDR is a well-established and highly respected organisation, at the forefront of providing mediation services for commercial disputes. Its partnership with Bonsucro is aligned with its development of alternative dispute mechanisms in the field of human rights.

The Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism only applies to Bonsucro members. Complaints relating to criminal and urgent matters are not out of scope, however it is likely that Bonsucro is not the right organisation to adjudicate on these matters. Therefore, Bonsucro encourages complainants to approach more relevant authorities to address criminal and urgent matters.

There was significant support to use mediation to facilitate early resolution of complaints. Bringing parties together early in the dispute process is proven to be more effective at resolving disputes compared with drawn out adversarial and adjudicative processes. Mediation provides a flexible process allowing the parties to fully air their issues and reach a negotiated settlement. If the parties do not agree to mediation or fail to reach a mediated outcome, then an adjudication process follows.

CEDR offers a mediation service for individuals and organisations engaging with the Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism. Individuals and organisations can also choose to seek out the services of another organisation for mediation at their own cost, but this will be operated outside the Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism.

In line with the UNGP on Business and Human Rights Effectiveness Criteria, Bonsucro has identified alternative options available to raise concerns in the Bonsucro Complaints and Grievances Management System – see Bonsucro’s website here.

During this pilot phase, Bonsucro will investigate potential partnerships with other organisations and work towards developing a Grievance Mechanism Support Group and ensure that complainants have access to language support and organisational support from civil society and other groups to help navigate the Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism process and its wider complaints and grievances management system. See the Bonsucro Promoting workers and community voices project for more information.

The public consultation highlighted the role that the Grievance Mechanism could play in educating stakeholders about mitigating environmental and social impacts and ensuring continuous improvement of sugarcane processing, production and sourcing. Bonsucro will carry out webinars at regular intervals and engage other organisations to raise awareness about the Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism and the options included in Bonsucro Complaints and Grievances Management System. 

Bonsucro will also keep working with other organisations to ensure that the launch of these options is supported by a capacity building / awareness raising sessions with workers and communities.

The Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism will be regularly adapted and improved as Bonsucro learns from the implementation process.

Each complaint will be given a unique tracking number and Bonsucro will publish the initial scoping decision and the conclusion of the mediation and a statement on the resolution. For more information on the details that will be published by Bonsucro, please visit Section 17 of the Grievance Mechanism Rules.

Bonsucro is working with its members to ensure that best practice guidance and case studies are shared and embedded into members’ approach of responding to environmental and social impacts. The Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism facilitate access to non-judicial remedy in accordance with its Rules.

The Bonsucro’s contract with CEDR is based on fixed fees for each step in the Grievance Mechanism. For the second financial year (April 2021 –March 2022), Bonsucro has allocated a budget to finance the setup costs and subsidise CEDR’s case handling fees. A rate card can be provided by CEDR during the initial scoping phase.

With that budget, approximately three complaints can be processed via the Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism.

CEDR will consider available funding when deciding on scoping. For more information on funding, please visit Section 7.1 of the Grievance Mechanism Rules. Bonsucro will also keep working with other organisations to identify alternative sources of funding. See our  Bonsucro Promoting workers and community voices project for more information.

In cases where a complaint relates to the actions of a member’s certified operations (i.e. potential non-conformity against the Bonsucro standards), CEDR will send a request for information to the licensed certification body in charge of the audit and certification of the Member. The conditions surrounding certification information sharing and use are covered in section 8 of the Bonsucro Grievance Mechanism Rules.