Rising public concern about inhumane working conditions in developing countries led to the creation of the Social Accountability International (SAI) in 1997. The purpose was to draw up a universal code of practice for labour conditions in manufacturing and agricultural industry.
SA 8000 standard for socially responsible employment practices, prescribes specific performance standards. It has set new standards governing workers’ rights.
It is designed to embrace existing international agreements including ILO convention, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. These instruments are referred to in SA 8000.
SA 8000 certificate is a respected social accountability certification for producers, factories and farms based on SA 8000:2014 standard.
The standard has 9 clauses out of which, 8 are related to Labour Welfare and the 9th clause is related to Management System. Because of the management system orientation, this standard is a little more difficult to adopt. This is why it is more demanding in terms of efforts required to maintain certification.
Another reason for the standard being more respected, is that it asks for the Basic Needs Wage implementation. This is a significant demand from the producers and suppliers as this increases their wage bill. This is the reason it is considered a Golden Standard for Social Accountability.
While the roadmap for obtaining this social certification may vary for each factory. We can help you in implementing the following generic roadmap:
STEP 1- Get the management commitment:
While this seems to be a very easy step, this is actually a very difficult step. Most common mistake in this step is that the top management is only given the idea of certification audit cost. Not knowing all the cost aspects of the SA 8000 certificate is a big mistake. They get financial shocks, when they find that the cost of maintaining this certificate is actually much more than the cost of acquiring the certificate. Below is a small Table outlining the SA 8000 costs:
SA 8000 COST | ||
AUDIT COST (20-30%) | MANAGEMENT COST (20-30%) | WELFARE COST (40-60%) |
How much SA 8000 implementation costs
Knowing the cost is also not enough. The top management should align with the principles of SA 8000 standard. This will require development of compassion for the workers. All the members of top management first have to commit to the welfare of the workers as a broad principle. This commitment is the foundation stone to all social certifications. Once this is done, rest is a piece of cake.
STEP 2: Build Policies/Procedures and a Team :
This step can take anywhere between 30 days to 90 days depending on efforts and competence of the Team. A team is very important. This team is known as the Social Performance Team (SPT) by the SA 8000 standard. An SPT should have workers as well as members from management. The Worker-member may include a worker representative. SPT should be well trained in Risk Analysis, SA 8000 standard, and Root cause Analysis. This training should not be one time but repeated and improved. The Social Performance Team should also be involved in conducting Internal audit, and in the conduct of management reviews.
STEP 3: Apply to the certification Body:
If the above two steps are conducted comprehensively, then this step is very easy. If the first two steps are not done in a hurry, this step will become easy. The Certification Body like ours does two audits- Stage 1 and Stage 2, Each audit will result in certain observations and non-conformities. The Social Performance Team (SPT) should carefully study all observations and non-conformities and conduct root cause analysis for each and try to take corrective action which will prevent recurrence of these observations.
It provides transparent, measurable, verifiable elements for certifying the performance of companies in nine essential areas:
Child Labor
Forced Labor
Health and Safety
Freedom of Association and Right to Collective Bargaining
Discrimination
Disciplinary Practices
Working Hours
Remuneration
Management System
ISO 26000:2010 is a guidance standard. It is not a requirement standard. Generally certification will be done on a standard which is defining minimum requirements. ISO 26000 is a well drafted standard. It is aligned with other ISO standards. It is based on 7 Principles:
The 7 Principles of Social Responsibility
The main difference is not in the content but in the execution and monitoring of the certification scheme. The execution and monitoring of SA 8000 certification is much higher than an ISO based standard. The biggest weakness of any ISO standard lies in the dilution of the certification standards by certification bodies. Since for SA 8000 there is a dedicated team of monitoring professionals and a reduced number of authorized certification bodies, the implementation of SA 8000 standard in a certified facility is higher. It is because of this general higher level of implementation and stringent monitoring, SA 8000 certificate is more respected and sought after by buyers and brands.
SA 8000:2014 has a big clause about management systems. This clause has 10 subclauses. This makes it the biggest requirement clause of the standard.
Policies Procedures and Records- There are three challenges for this requirement:
Following are the reasons why SA 8000 certification is better than other social audits:
You may visit the SAI website.
Submit your contact details to us, and one of our team members will give you a call to discuss your business needs and provide you with a pdf of SA 8000 standards.
Every SA 8000 audit will result in some observations and non-conformities. A right attitude and detailed analysis can turn these non-conformities into opportunities for improvements. The most important aspect is how much time and analysis the SPT – social performance team spends on each non-conformities. It is a two step process:
STEP 1: ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS
There are many techniques for root cause analysis and a factory management may choose any technique – a FISH BONE ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE helps the SPT to think in specific areas of root cause analysis. If a factory management chooses to use a Fish Bone analysis, they should first do an internal training of the SPT for this tool. It is because every tool needs a certain amount of practice to use it more efficiently. A factory should not switch too often between techniques of root cause analysis. First step: is to train the team. Second step: they should meet 2- 3 times with a break of 2- 3 days in between. Each time they should try to identify the root cause for non-conformity in the possible directions. The directions are the possible type of reasons. They are drawn as “branches” of the fish-bone structure
STEP 2: CORRECTIVE ACTION
Once the above steps are completed. We are ready for identifying action which will prevent recurrence of the given non-conformity. This step is the most difficult step and requires understanding of all processes and their linkages. In this step the STP tries to identify more than one ACTION for each non-conformity.
SA 8000 standard is freely downloadable from the SAI site. You can download the SA 8000 standard from below links:
The best way to make a checklist is to start with questions from Performance Indicator Annexure – This document is freely downloadable from SAI website.
You can also download the SA 8000 checklist by filling in contact details in the ‘Contact Us’ Form.
You can also download the SA 8000 checklist by filling in contact details in the ‘Contact Us’ Form.
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