An effective grievance mechanism gives employees and other affected stakeholders the opportunity to raise concerns and problems in a safe way. These concerns may relate to working conditions, wages, working hours, discrimination, harassment, or other social, environmental, or ethical issues.

At Nybo Workwear, we consider grievance mechanisms an important part of our work with responsible business conduct. They can help identify specific problems and provide us with new knowledge about risks in our value chain.

Grievance channels at our suppliers

We expect our production suppliers to have a grievance mechanism that employees can use confidentially and without fear of retaliation.

The specific solution varies from factory to factory. The mechanisms used by our suppliers include anonymous grievance boxes, digital solutions, employee representatives, HR or compliance functions, and local grievance committees. Several factories also combine different channels to make it easier for employees to raise concerns.

Nybo follows up annually on whether suppliers have a grievance mechanism in place and how many grievances have been registered. This information is considered together with, among other things, audit results and our ongoing dialogue with suppliers when assessing social conditions and risks in the value chain.

The possibility to contact Nybo directly

Employees at our suppliers and other affected stakeholders can also use Nybo Workwear’s own whistleblower system as an alternative channel.

The system makes it possible to contact Nybo directly if a person does not wish to, or is unable to, use the local grievance mechanism.

Nybo Workwear received no grievances through this channel in either 2025 or 2026.

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How many grievances have been registered?

Based on the information reported by our suppliers, we have the following data:

These figures should be read with an important limitation. In 2024, we had information on the number of grievances from 18 suppliers, while in 2025 we had information from 22 suppliers. The increase from 34 to 42 grievances therefore cannot in itself be interpreted as an indication that conditions have improved or worsened.

The use of a grievance mechanism is not necessarily a negative sign. On the contrary, registered grievances may indicate that employees are aware of the mechanism and trust that they can use it.

Likewise, zero registered grievances is not in itself evidence that no problems exist. A grievance mechanism only has value if employees know about it, can access it, and feel safe using it.

What do we know about the grievances?

Our current data has an important limitation.

For 2024 and 2025, we collected information on the number of grievances, but we did not systematically collect information on:

• the topics of the grievances,
• how the grievances were investigated,
• which corrective actions were taken,
• or how it was assessed whether the issue had been resolved.

We are therefore not currently able to report responsibly on the distribution of grievances by topic or on the specific remedial actions taken by suppliers.

What have we learned?

Our work with grievance mechanisms has shown us that it is not sufficient merely to know whether a mechanism exists or how many grievances have been received.

To assess whether the mechanisms actually work, we also need knowledge about the nature of the grievances, how they are handled, which corrective actions they lead to, and whether the issues are subsequently resolved.

We have also learned that the absence of grievances does not necessarily mean the absence of problems. Our follow-up must therefore increasingly focus on both access, use, and handling of grievances.

Next steps

We have therefore set a target to improve our data collection on grievance mechanisms.

From the next annual supplier follow-up, we will develop a more structured reporting approach so that we can collect aggregated information on, among other things:

• number of grievances,
• main topics,
• how grievances have been handled,
• relevant corrective actions,
• and follow-up on whether the actions resolved the issue.

The aim is not simply to collect more data, but to use grievances and feedback as a source of learning and continuous improvement in our work with human rights and responsible working conditions in the value chain.