“…The first is that ‘soft regulation’ provides low to zero impact due to lack of legal standing/enforceability (Meardi, 2012; Stuart et al, 2011). The second sees soft regulation having a positive impact on its own because it can bring a range of alternative measures for compliance where hard regulation fails, for example, through raising public awareness and opinion, sanctions against products and the role of powerful soft intermediary bodies that influence organisations, such as professional associations, employers organisations and unions (Heery et al, 2020; Kuruvilla & Verma, 2006; Marchington, 2015; Sabel et al, 2000; Sisson, 2019). The third sees soft regulation offering a positive impact due to its supplementation of ‘hard law’, that is, they are not mutually exclusive, as the former can fill the gaps that the latter does not reach (Locke et al, 2013; Szabados, 2021).…”