Mithuru Saviya: Strengthening worker voice in Sri Lanka's supply chains
An independent channel to address and remediate workplace grievances before they escalate into more serious risks
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Combining global expertise with local knowledge to deliver trusted and effective grievance mechanisms in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka plays an important role in global supply chains, particularly across apparel, manufacturing and agricultural sectors. While these industries provide significant economic opportunities, workers can face a range of challenges including excessive working hours, wage-related concerns, discrimination, harassment and barriers to raising workplace issues safely.
For organisations seeking greater visibility of conditions within their supply chains, hearing directly from workers is critical. Effective grievance mechanisms provide valuable, real-time insights to proactively identify, monitor, and manage risks — while also uncovering critical ‘blind spots’ that traditional tools such as audits, SAQs, and other risk monitoring approaches may miss.
LRQA is expanding its Global Grievance Mechanism offering with the launch of Mithuru Saviya. Meaning "friendly support" in Sinhala, Mithuru Saviya is LRQA’s dedicated grievance mechanism in Sri Lanka, designed to be sector-agnostic and easily scalable. Developed in Mithuru Saviya provides workers with independent, trusted and accessible channels to confidentially report workplace concerns and access effective remediation.
By helping workers raise concerns safely and in their own language, Mithuru Saviya enables brands and suppliers to identify risks earlier, strengthen remediation processes and support better outcomes across their supply chains.
Why Mithuru Saviya?
Trusted local delivery
Mithuru Saviya is delivered through a partnership between LRQA and a local NGO with extensive experience and deep expertise in labour rights and women's rights in Sri Lanka. By combining global grievance mechanism expertise with deep local knowledge, trusted community relationships and understanding of Sri Lanka's labour landscape, Mithuru Saviya helps build the trust needed for workers to raise concerns confidently.
Accessible worker engagement
Workers can raise concerns through communication channels they already use, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and a toll-free telephone helpline. Supported by trained live operators who speak Sinhala and Tamil, the service removes barriers to reporting and enables workers to communicate in their preferred language without needing to download an app.
Independent support and remediation
Mithuru Saviya provides workers with an independent and confidential channel to raise workplace concerns without fear of retaliation. Workers can report issues anonymously, with each case carefully reviewed and, where appropriate, escalated through structured processes that support investigation, follow-up and remediation. This helps organisations address issues before they escalate into larger problems while supporting better outcomes for workers.
Actionable insight into supply chain risk
Beyond individual cases, Mithuru Saviya provides organisations with valuable insight into workplace conditions across their supply chains. Aggregated grievance data helps identify trends, understand emerging risks, and support more informed decision-making, strengthening responsible sourcing programmes and human rights due diligence efforts.
Built for responsible sourcing
Audits, self-assessment questionnaires and other monitoring tools are important to responsible sourcing programmes. However, they often provide only a snapshot and may not capture issues as they emerge in day-to-day environments. Mithuru Saviya helps address these blind spots by providing workers with a trusted channel to raise concerns directly. Supporting earlier risk identification, more effective remediation and stronger visibility into workplace conditions.
Why partner with us?
LRQA supports businesses to implement grievance mechanisms for global supply chains. As a trusted expert with over a decade of experience, we offer a confidential and independent mechanism for workers to report issues and receive remediation, while clients recieve critical data to support proactive risk management and due diligence.
Our people
Our grievance mechanisms are supported by experienced social compliance, human rights and remediation specialists, alongside trusted local partners on the ground who understand cultural context, language and worker realities.
Our tools
LRQA combines worker reporting channels, case management processes and data analytics to help organisations gain meaningful insight into supply chain risks. Our Global Grievance Mechanism Interactive Data Dashboard identifies trends and emerging risk, providing greater visibility across suppliers, sites and geographies, turning feedback into actionable insight.
Our experience
With over a decade of experience designing and operating grievance mechanisms globally, LRQA has supported more than 2 million workers across diverse sectors and geographies. With the launch of Mithuru Saviya, LRQA now operates 10 worker helplines worldwide.
Our expertise
We work closely with businesses, civil society organisation and industry stakeholders to design grievance mechanisms that are practical, scalable and aligned with international expectations for responsible business conduct and human rights due diligence.
Frequently asked questions
What is a grievance mechanism?
A grievance mechanism is a structured process that enables workers and other rights holders to safely raise concerns about workplace issues and access remediation. Effective grievance mechanisms help organisations identify risks earlier, strengthen remediation efforts and improve working conditions.
Why are grievance mechanisms important?
Many human rights risks remain invisible to traditional monitoring approaches until they become more serious. Grievance mechanisms provide organisations with ongoing, real-time visibility of issues as they emerge, supporting faster investigation, remediation and continuous improvement.
What type of concerns can be reported through Mithuru Saviya?
Workers can raise concerns relating to workplace conditions, labour rights, health and safety, discrimination, harassment, and other workplace-related issues.
How can workers access Mithuru Saviya?
Workers can contact the grievance mechanism through a toll-free phone line, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger using channels that are familiar and accessible.
Is the service confidential?
Yes. Confidentiality is a core principle of our grievance mechanism. Workers can raise concerns anonymously through an independent process designed to safeguard data privacy and protection, while encouraging reporting.