SA 8000

Audit & Certification Services

HOW CAN YOU SHOW THAT YOU’RE fully
COMMITTED TO social accountability?
SA 8000 AUDIT & CERTIFICATION
Services FROM SGS
With a steady rise in the
number of corporate scandals,
organisations recognise the need
to consider the effects their
activities and policies can have
on their reputation and credibility
in the marketplace. They need
to consider the social impact
of their operations, in addition
to the conditions under which
their employees, partners and
suppliers operate. This means
controlling and practicing respect
and promotion of human rights
for all employees throughout
the whole supply, production
and distribution chain. Through
social audits you can demonstrate
your commitment to social
accountability to your employees,
the public and other stakeholders.
ABOUT THE STANDARD
SA 8000 is an international certification
standard that encourages organisations
to develop, maintain and apply socially
acceptable practices in the workplace.
It was created in 1989 by Social
Accountability International (SAI), an
affiliate of the Council on Economic
Priorities, and is viewed as the
most globally accepted independent
workplace standard. It can be applied
to any company, of any size, anywhere
in the world. The areas it addresses
include forced and child labour,
occupational health and safety, freedom
of association and collective bargaining,
discrimination, disciplinary practices,
working hours, compensation and
management systems.
As well as setting workplace standards
worldwide, SA 8000 also embraces
existing international agreements,
including conventions from the
International Labor Organization, the
Universal Declaration on Human Rights
and the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child.
THE BENEFITS
SA 8000 compliance proves your
commitment to social accountability and
to treating your employees ethically and in
compliance with global standards. At the
same time, this certification can improve
the management and performance of
your supply chain. SA 8000 allows you to
ensure compliance with global standards
and reduce the risk of negligence,
public exposure and possible litigation.
Demonstrating commitment to social
accountability can support your corporate
vision and build and reinforce the loyalty
of your employees, customers and
stakeholders, which in turn impacts your
bottom line.
Certifying your organisation against SA
8000 by partnering with SGS will help you
develop and improve social accountability.
Your SA 8000 certificate from SGS
enables you to demonstrate proper
social accountability when bidding for
international contracts or expanding locally
to accommodate new business.
HOW DOES THE CERTIFICATION
PROCESS WORK?
The SA 8000 certification process
consists of several steps:
• Step A – SGS provides you with a
proposal based on the size and nature
of your organisation. You can then
proceed with the audit by accepting
the proposal.
• Step B – You may ask SGS to
perform a ‘pre-audit’ to give an
indication of the readiness of your
organisation for the audit. This stage
is optional, yet it is often found useful
in identifying any weaknesses in your
systems and in building confidence
before the formal audit.
• Step C – Desk Study. The objective
of the case study phase is to define
legislative framework and the most
appropriate audit team with different
skills (language, gender balance,
industry experience etc.)
• Step D – Stakeholder activity.
Stakeholders, such as NGOs, Trade
Unions, Governmental Offices and
other entities are consulted in order
to gather information related to
the organisation’s social footprint.
Stakeholders play a very important role
in the monitoring activity of SA8000
certification and add more credibility
to the standard and its certification
mechanism. They are consulted during
audit preparation and throughout the
whole certification process.
• Step E – The first part of the formal
audit is the ‘Stage 1 – Readiness
Review’. This is an on-site visit to
the organisation and lets us evaluate
the compliance of your documented
system with the requirements of the
standard to better understand the
nature of your organisation, to plan
the rest of the audit as effectively
as possible and to initially examine
key elements of the system. You
will receive a report after this stage
identifying any concerns or observed
non-compliances so that you can take
immediate action if required.
• Step F – This is ‘Stage 2’ of the initial
audit process. The audit includes
interviews with you and your
colleagues and examination of records.
Observation of your working practices
determines how compliant your actual
processes are with the standard
and with your own documentation
system. At the end of this stage,
we will present the findings of the
SA 8000 CERTIFICATION PROCESS
Assessment and certification
Step C Step D*
Step A
Desk- Stakeholder
Agree
study Consultation
Contract
activity Activity
Step B
Optional
Pre-Audit
* Stakeholder Consultation is a continuous activity that takes place throughout the certification process.
audit classified as either major or
minor non-conformances along with
other observations and opportunities
for improvement. Once you have
addressed the non-conformities, a
technical review of the audit will then
be conducted by an authorised SGS
Certification Manager to confirm the
issuance of a certificate.
• Step G – Our surveillance visits will
be scheduled at six month intervals.
During the visits, we review the
implementation of the action plan
addressing the past non-conformities
and examine certain mandatory and
other selected parts of the system in
line with an audit plan that we provide
you before each visit. The second
surveillance visit after the certification
audit is unannounced.
• Step H – Shortly before the third
anniversary of the initial certification,
our routine visit will be extended
to enable a re-certification audit.
Surveillance visits will then continue,
as before, on a 3-year cycle.
TRAINING RELATED TO SOCIAL SYSTEMS
We offer a wide variety of training
courses related to social systems for
all levels of ability and awareness. Our
training course portfolio is designed
to meet the requirements of any
organisation, and includes:
Introduction & Awareness
to Social Systems
Certificate
Step E Step F Issue on
Completion
Stage 1 Stage 2
of Successful
Audit Audit
Audit
Action and
Closure of
Identified
Non-Conformities
Social Systems Internal Auditor
Social Systems Lead Auditor
Social Systems Auditor
Auditor Conversion to Social Systems
AA 1000 Professional Qualification
Sustainability Reporting
Corporate Responsibility Training
Please visit www.sgs.com/training to
view the course schedules in your region.
OTHER SERVICES RELATED TO SA 8000
SGS is also known for its solutions
against other needs related to
sustainability as well as continuous
improvement:
• Sustainability Report Assurance:
ensure that all social and
environmental information published
in your corporate sustainability report
is accurate and correct;
• Integrated Management Systems:
your management systems can be
audited and certified simultaneously
with other management systems
which you have implemented; and
• Audit solutions against additional,
bespoke criteria which can be either
customer specific or developed with
/ for an association or any other third
party: SGS can help develop the
performance criteria and the checklist
or simply check performance against
existing measures.
Surveillance Visits typically
At 6 to 12 month intervals
Step G Step H
Action and
Surveillance Closure of Identified Recertification
Visits Non-Conformities Audit
The second surveillance after
certification audit shall
be unannounced.
Certification Cycle Typically 3 years
WHY SGS?
SGS is the world’s leading inspection,
verification, testing and certification
company. Recognised as the global
benchmark for quality and integrity,
we employ over 59 000 people and
operate a network of more than 1 000
offices and laboratories around the
world. We are constantly looking beyond
customers’ and society’s expectations in
order to deliver market leading services
wherever they are needed.
Partnering with SGS opens the door to
better performing processes, increasingly
skilful talent, consistent and compliant
supply chains and more sustainable
customer relationships delivering
profitable competitive advantage. Work
with the global leader and take your
commitment to the next level.
We have a history of undertaking and
successfully executing large-scale,
complex international projects. With a
presence in every single region around
the globe, our people speak the language
and understand the culture of the
local market and operate globally in a
consistent, reliable and effective manner.
TO LEARN HOW SGS CAN HELP YOU
EXCEED CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS,
VISIT WWW.SGS.COM/SA8000 OR
CONTACT CERTIFICATION@SGS.COM
FOR MORE INFORMATION.
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