SA 8000 Consultants

SA 8000 Certification

SA 8000 is an internationally recognised certification standard that helps organisations and companies in applying and maintaining work practices in the workplace that are socially acceptable. The standard was developed by an advisory board of Social Accountability International or SAI. The SA 8000 helps in defining a common language for businesses and industries to measure social compliance. As the standard is applicable to any organisation all over the world, it can be a useful tool for measuring and assessing the social accountability of an organisation.

SA 8000 certification is a management system standard that is developed in accordance with ISO standards. The fundamental principles of the SA 8000 include the international human rights aspects as well as the norms prescribed by the International Labour Organisation and the universal declaration of Human Rights. There are eight major areas where the performance of a company is assessed when it applies for the SA 8000 certificate. These eight areas include child labour, health and safety, free association, disciplinary practices, working hours, forced labour, discrimination, and collective bargaining.

The SA 8000 accreditation is granted to companies by independent bodies that are accredited and governed by the Social Accountability Accreditation Services. Once an organisation implements the necessary SA 8000 certification requirements, it can be granted a certificate that is attested to the compliance of SA 8000. The validity of the certification is three years, and there is a series of required surveillance audits in these three years. The audit is done for periodic monitoring of the social management system implemented in the company and ensures continuous improvement in meeting the standard.

Maintenance and improvement of the social management system of the certified organisation are a continual process and for the best results it is important to involve workers in the process. The most important benefit of SA 8000 is that it helps in improving the morale of staff members, reliable partnerships in business, better communication between workers and management, increased competence and less turnover of staff.

The time required for SA 8000 certification process is based on how long it takes for the company to implement the social management system in the organisation. The process of certification is a two-stage process where the first stage is the planning of the audit for certification, and the second stage includes an objective assessment of the practices and confirms their compliance with the requirements of SA 8000.

Once a company is SA 8000 certified, it sends out a message of good practices to its customers as well as to other companies. It becomes a significant step towards the improvement of the working environment at the workplace.

If you are planning to apply for SA 8000 certification, you should consider using the services of an experienced SA 8000 consultant who understand the process of SA 8000 certifications properly. We offer a diversified portfolio of consultancy services to our clients related to SA 8000 certifications. We take care of all the formalities and paperwork and provide experienced SA 8000 certification services to our clients. We also help our clients regarding the periodic audits conducted by the certifying bodies.