ESRS S1: own workforce

What does ESRS S1 cover?

ESRS S1 covers the material impacts, risks and opportunities relating to a company's own workforce: working conditions, such as secure employment, working time, adequate wages, social dialogue, work-life balance and health and safety; equal treatment and opportunities, such as gender equality and equal pay, training, the employment of persons with disabilities, and measures against violence and harassment; and other work-related rights, such as child labour, forced labour, adequate housing and privacy. Workers in the value chain are covered by ESRS S2. See ESRS 2 general disclosures.

What does ESRS S1 require?

The standard follows the ESRS structure of policies, actions, targets and metrics, applying the general disclosure requirements in ESRS 2. A company describes its policies for its own workforce, including on trafficking, forced and child labour; how it engages with workers and their representatives; its channels for workers to raise concerns and how it provides or enables remedy; its actions to prevent, mitigate and remediate negative impacts and pursue opportunities; and any targets. See impact materiality.

Which metrics does ESRS S1 require?

• Employees: headcount by gender, by country for the largest countries, and by permanent, temporary and non-guaranteed hours contracts, and turnover.
• Non-employees in the workforce, where relevant to material matters.
• Collective bargaining and social dialogue coverage.
• Diversity: the gender distribution in top management.
• Adequate wages, social protection and persons with disabilities.
• Training: performance reviews and average training hours.
• Health and safety: coverage by a management system, fatalities, recordable work-related accidents and their rate per million hours worked, work-related ill health and days lost.
• Work-life balance: entitlement to family-related leave.
• Remuneration: the gender pay gap and the ratio of the highest-paid individual's total remuneration to the median.
• Incidents: discrimination and other complaints, severe human rights incidents, and related fines and compensation.

ESRS S1 in practice: a retailer's workforce metrics

A retailer with stores in three countries reports its main S1 metrics for 2027.

The headcount by country and contract type shows that temporary contracts are concentrated in Spain and Poland, where the company describes its actions on secure employment. The pay gap uses gross hourly pay for all employees, without adjusting for role, so it reflects the high share of women in lower-paid store roles; the company explains this and its targets for women in management. The accident rate uses the ESRS basis of one million hours worked, not the US basis of 200,000 hours. See ESG KPIs explained.

What changed in the revised ESRS S1?

The revised standards, adopted by the Commission on 3 July 2026, apply mandatorily from financial years starting on or after 1 January 2027, with early use allowed for 2026. For S1, they revise the adequate wage benchmark, with more emphasis on International Labour Organization principles for living wages outside the EU; revise the definitions for recordable accidents, ill health and fatalities; narrow severe human rights incidents to substantiated cases, filtered for severity; revise the country thresholds; and allow wider use of local legal definitions. Selected S1 datapoints, including some on non-employees, can be omitted in the first year of reporting. See the revised ESRS.

How does ESRS S1 relate to EU pay transparency rules?

The Pay Transparency Directive, which member states had to transpose by 7 June 2026, requires employers with 100 or more workers to report gender pay gap information to national authorities, starting in 2027 for employers with 150 or more workers. Its definitions differ in places from ESRS S1, for example in the pay elements and groupings used, so companies should build one payroll data set and reconcile the two figures rather than calculate them separately.

How does ESRS S1 compare with GRI and the ISSB?

GRI covers the same ground through GRI 401 to 409, and is revising its labour standards. Business conduct, including payment practices, is covered by ESRS G1. The ISSB has no human capital standard yet, but is researching one, and companies applying IFRS S1 identify workforce risks and opportunities using the SASB Standards. See GRI topic standards and SASB standards and industry-based metrics.

This guide is general information. It is not tax or legal advice for your situation.