Brainwave
SA 8000 (Social Accountability 8000) : Corporate Social Accountability Management
by Kiran Taliyawala,
HR
Executive, Surlin Solutions, Surat
MHRD from DRMISSS
During the last decades the global business environment suffered the effects of successive waves of management requirements. Companies have adapted, or are trying to adapt, to quality and environmental management standards and to occupational health and safety legislation and standards. The recent publication of the standard SA8000 on "Social Accountability" is an indication of events to come.
India has the largest number of urban and rural child workers in the world. The Government of India acknowledges at least 17.5 million working children. Estimates by various organizations range from 44 million to over 100 million child workers. Thus, Social and ethical questions are growing in importance and will have to be adequately tackled by companies in the years to come. For companies social and ethical accountings are emerging as basic instruments to answer to demands of improved transparency and accountability from various stakeholders. As a result of this trend, at present there are already several organisations accredited to audit facilities for conformance to SA8000 as well as a growing number of SA8000 third-party certified companies.
SA 8000 is an International Standard for the companies seeking basic rights for the Workmen. It was initiated and officially issued in October 1997 by CEPAA (Council on Economic Priority Accreditation Agency) and was revised in 2001 by SAI (Social Accountability International). The objective is to ensure ethical sourcing of goods and services. It is a voluntary standard and can be applied to any size of organisations or business across all industries. SA 8000 is an auditable standard, modelled after the establishment of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards. The standard can replace or enhance company or industry’s specific social accountability code.
SA 8000 sets basic standards for:
• Child labour;
• Forced labour;
• Health & Safety;
• Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining;
• Discrimination;
• Disciplinary Practices;
• Working Hours; and
• Remuneration.
Additionally the organization also has to introduce Management System to ensure compliance and continuous improvement in delivering the above-cited aspects. The requirements in the standard itself are based on the various conventions and recommendations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the child of the United Nations (UN).
Similarly to ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 (the international quality and environmental management systems series of standards, respectively) SA 8000 is formulated to allow audit and certification by a third-party certification body. However, this new standard embraces not only system requirements but also tangible performance requirements.
To certify corporate conformance with SA 8000, every facility seeking certification must be audited. Thus auditors will visit factories and assess corporate practice on a wide range of issues; child labour, health and safety, freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, discrimination, disciplinary practices, working hours and compensation. Auditors will also evaluate the state of a company’s management systems, necessary to ensure on-going conformance in each of these areas. The goal is continuous improvement, not exclusion.
Disclaimer : The views
expressed in the articles are author’s own views B’Cognizance or
IIITA is not liable for any objections arising out of the same.
The matter here is solely for academic use only.