The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has released four new exposure drafts that would significantly expand how companies report on labor rights issues across their value chains. These proposed updates target some of the most persistent and high-risk human rights challenges globally—including forced labor, child labor, and protections related to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards are among the world’s most widely used frameworks for corporate ESG disclosure. Developed by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), the standards aim to ensure companies communicate their sustainability impacts in a consistent, comparable, and transparent way for investors and other stakeholders.

A Comprehensive Refresh of GRI’s Labor Standards

These new drafts are part of GRI’s broader “Labor Project,” launched in 2022 to modernize eight labor-related standards. The organization expects final updated standards to begin publishing in mid-2026. The latest exposure drafts include proposed revisions to:

• GRI 407: Freedom of Association & Collective Bargaining

• GRI 408: Child Labor

• GRI 409: Forced Labor

• GRI 414: Workers in Business Relationships

Together, these refreshed standards aim to help companies more clearly explain their most significant impacts on workers—both within their operations and throughout their supply chains. The proposals elevate expectations for how organizations describe due diligence processes, incident reporting, prevention and remediation measures, grievance mechanisms, and engagement with worker representatives.

Responding to Persistent Global Labor Challenges

GRI notes that the updates reflect mounting expectations for companies to identify and address labor risks beyond their direct employees. The revisions respond to ongoing global issues such as worker poverty, rising informal and precarious work, entrenched gender inequalities, and continued gaps in eradicating child and forced labor. The new draft disclosures would require stronger evidence of policies, assessments, and management actions across an organization’s entire value chain—not just first-tier suppliers.

What Happens Next

GRI has opened a public consultation on the four exposure drafts, which will remain available for comment through March 9, 2026. This period gives companies, civil society organizations, investors, and other stakeholders an opportunity to influence how the final standards are shaped.