The significance of SA 8000: Social Accountability

SA 8000 is an auditable quality certification that emphasizes organizations to create, uphold and apply socially valuable practices in the working environment. It was created in 1997 by Social Accountability International (SAI), previously the Council on Economic Priorities, by a board comprising of trade unions, NGOs, civil society associations and businesses. The SA 8000 aligns the complexities of exploring industry and corporate codes to establish common language and standard for measuring social conformity. As it globally applicable to any organization in any industry, it is a helpful instrument in measuring, comparing, and checking social responsibility in the work environment.

SA 8000 certification is derived from ISO standards. The management system’s criteria oblige that offices trying to be compliant must surpass securing the standard certification, it should be implemented with their other management systems and practices and must show continuous conformance with the standard. SA 8000 is dependent upon the standards of global human rights protocols as cited in the International Labor Organization gatherings, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It measures the capabilities of organizations to conform in eight areas essential to social responsibility in the working environment:  child labor, forced labor, health and safety, free association and collective bargaining, discrimination, disciplinary practices, working hours and compensation.

Social Accountability Accreditation Services (SAAS) accredits and oversees independent certification bodies that can grant certification of SA 8000 to organizations. Auditors will visit organization sites and observe corporate practice on an extensive variety of issues and assess the state of an organization’s management systems, essential to continuous conformance on satisfactory practices. Once proven to be implementing important improvements, they can be certified in SA 8000. This accreditation provides an open report of its conformance to the public and can build credibility and competitiveness of an organization in terms of providing a socially valuable working environment.

Consultants for SA 8000

QSE designed and perfected the Ten Step Approach to cost- effectively prepare facilities for successfully passing Certification Audits with minimum or no nonconformities. This 10 Step Approach has a built-in discipline to involve all employees including top management right from the beginning to achieve long-term desired results. This approach is so complete that we have helped over 600 companies obtain certification. With more than 20 years of experience in providing proper consulting, training and auditing, and the simplicity of approach, they provide superior benefits such as reduced documentation, sustainable implementation, real world application, improved quality, better efficiency, increased productivity and bottom line improvement. Contact QSE Consultant through their website or call 770 – 518 – 9967770 – 518 – 9967 now.