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Released in May 2009, "SA8000: The First Decade" provides perspective over the years and sets an agenda for the next decade. This book commemorates the certification of over one million workers. Businesses, NGOs, academics and trade union leaders provide much-needed perspective on the lessons learned from SA8000 and set an agenda for the next decade.
Make a donation now and receive a free gift of "SA8000: The First Decade"
Your tax deductible gift will help SAI advance its mission of promoting human rights at work. Click here to make a pledge today.
SAI is a 501 (C)(3)
charitable organization.
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SAI mourns the devastating loss of our esteemed friend, colleague, and Founding Advisory Board member, Neil Kearney, Secretary General of the International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers Federation (ITGWLF). He passed away of a massive heart attach last night, in Dhaka.
Neil Kearney was a founding member of SAI 's Advisory Board and served until the end on the Board's Founder's Committee. His brilliance and passion for justice, his tireless advocacy for the rights of workers, and his extraordinarily detailed knowledge of ILO conventions catapulted SAI's SA8000 into the highly respected "gold standard" this it is today. His mark is embedded in SA8000. Neil's gritty determination to give voice and real power to workers, coupled with his unique sense of humor and his love of great food, stories and wine has always been an inspiration to all of us at SAI. Neil never ceased to press us to set our standards higher and to deliver on our promise.
Working with Neil Kearney was an absolute privilege that we will forever treasure. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to his wife, Jutta, and two daughters, Nicole and Caroline--Neil was deeply proud of you and loved you very much. We join with his colleagues around the world to honor his life by following his dictum: "Act as if what you do mattered, because it does."
I'd like to share one of our favorite photos of Neil. Here he is amidst a 2003 worker training in China. You can see his awesome magnetism and feel the impact. As much as he was a powerful speaker to audiences around the world, it was truly through these moments of speaking to workers that one can see his validity, sincerity, and genius.
Alice Tepper Marlin
President, Social Accountability International
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Notes from the Field and Photos:
'Trapiches' of Nicaragua
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A glimpse
inside the risky sub-sector of "dulce
rapadura" - a common sweetener
in instant coffee - production in
Nicaragua
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SAI's Central
America programs work in partnerships to develop a culture of
labor compliance in agricultural plantations to advance the human rights of
workers. The article below describes a sub-sector of the sugarcane industry--dulce
rapadura [dried sugarcane juice] where labor conditions in the trapiches
[sugarcane mills], are often, dangerously, below the radar of labor
inspectors. There is a great need for cooperation for improvement; to that end
SAI seeks to engage companies, government and workers' advocates to improve
working conditions in sugar production.
The following five photos shows the production path of dulce rapadura,
from the sugarcane fields, to the mill, to the boiler, and to packaging for
sale.
1. Outside the trapiche [sugarcane mill] is a small sugarcane
field that will be harvested to make dulce rapadura.
2. A worker pushes sugarcane stalks through the press in which the juice is extracted. Exposed gears pose a major safety risk, and are the most frequent source for injuries within the trapiche.
3. At the other end of the press, a second worker carries the cane remains to feed an oven and the sugarcane juice, in a wooden box, to a metal basin above the fire. [not shown: a third worker transports the syrup to a second reducing stage]
4. After the sugarcane juice reaches proper consistency, density and color, a fourth team member pours it into brick-shaped wooden molds.
5. The dried blocks of sugarcane juice, dulce rapadura, are removed from the molds and bagged and await transport to market.
Photos: Courtesy of Matthew Fischer-Daly, SAI Program Manager |
Working conditions inside the "trapiche," and
the work of SAI's Latin American programs
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Demand for sugarcane is driven by multiple markets. While demand for alternative energy drives expansion of sugarcane production in many countries, the production of rapadura continues, responding to demand for sweeteners in products such as instant coffee. Although many public and private monitors of labor, environmental and product quality are focused on parts of the sugar agro-industry, the sub-sector of rapadura production seems perilously overlooked.
In Nicaragua, approximately 400 workers process 1,800 acres of sugarcane into rapadura at "trapiches"--processing facilities adjacent to sugarcane fields. Producers interviewed estimate that instant coffee makers purchase 70% of their rapadura, with the rest going other food and beverage processors or local markets. Working conditions like those shown above need more attention from customers as well as local and international labor monitors.
In Nicaragua, the rapadura sub-sector has both an industry association, the Association of Private Producers of Sugarcane (APRIC) and the Trade Union of Workers and Peasant Farmers. Market instability and other pressures lead to persistent problems: each trapiche's team of four often only earns wages for three; workers regularly endure accidents that leave them handicapped without access to public health care, and hygienic conditions are often inadequate for food production.
The workplace shown is emblematic of complex supply chains. In nearly every economic sector, sub-sectors such as rapadura production are critical links in the supply chain, but minimally covered by monitoring efforts, whether of companies with sophisticated social responsibility programs, local law enforcement or international labor monitors. There is a need to broaden attention to the conditions in these sub-sectors and work collaboratively to improve workplaces.
As noted above, SAI is working to address this challenge with an industry-wide approach to develop commitments and capacities of companies, workers and government inspectors to implement labor standards in the agriculture sectors of Nicaragua (bananas and sugarcane), Honduras (melon and bananas), Costa Rica (pineapple and melon) and the Dominican Republic (bananas and sugarcane).
With the support of the U.S. Department of Labor, SAI's Project Cultivar is training and accompanying managers and workers to implement management systems to assure labor standards compliance at the farm level, delivering workshops for labor inspectors to enable greater enforcement in the agro-industries, and facilitating social dialogue to sustain improvements.
Under the USAID Environmental and Labor Excellence for CAFTA-DR Program (ELE CAFTA-DR), SAI is partnering to establish alliances with international companies and their local suppliers that raise commitments to labor standards, providing targeted farm-level training, and reinforcing the social dialogue processes in each sector. |
A Look Inside SA8000: The Next Decade
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Book excerpt: SA8000: The First Decade. Implementation, Influence, and Impact, edited by Deborah Leipziger,
published by Greenleaf.
Chapter 7: Business Social Compliance Initiative: The Development Approach to SA8000 for Commerce and Manufacturers
"The founders of the BSCI did not want to reinvent the wheel.
The drafters merged and consolidated the most important existing standards.
SA8000 was seen as the leading and internationally recognized standard
supported by the stakeholders. The group developing the BSCI agreed to form a
system with the aim of steadily developing suppliers toward the implementation
of the SA8000 criteria and finally toward certification. This development
approach is a key element in the BSCI, as it has been seen that it can take a
long time until suppliers are able to meet the SA8000 criteria. Thus, SA8000 is
considered best practice for the BSCI. Suppliers meeting the BSCI Code of
Conduct criteria are encouraged to go further toward achieving full SA8000
certification.
In order to monitor the criteria of the BSCI Code of
Conduct, social audits are an important part of the process. They are carried
out by independent auditing companies. The auditing companies have to be
accredited by Social Accountability International (SAI) and, since early 2008,
this is now conducted by Social Accountability Accreditation Services (SAAS).
The auditors have to take part in SA8000 training courses and to pass
corresponding exams. The independence and the quality of the audits are of
major importance to the BSCI. The accreditation process is crucial to the
system's credibility. The audits are the basis for drafting correction plans
that describe in detail which measures have to be taken within what period of
time, in order to ensure compliance with the criteria of the Code of Conduct."
This chapter was written by Mr. Lorenz Berzau, the BSCI
Managing Director Strategy & Stakeholder Relations at the Foreign Trade
Association (FTA). For more information or to order a copy of this book, click here
This holiday season, SAI will send all donors a free gift of "SA8000: The First Decade." Click here to donate to SAI
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Corporate Programs and Training Update
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SAI Launches New SA8000 Advanced Auditor Course
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SAI is pleased to announce that the 3-day SA8000 Advanced Auditor training course has been completely re-designed. The new course was first run twice in October in Milan, Italy. SAI incorporated student, trainer and expert feedback to refine the course which has since been run in Egypt, Brazil and China. The new Advanced Course incorporates more group exercises, with Day 2 & 3 built around a simulated audit. Attendees are given documentation and case information on a company, and then are guided through all of the steps of the audit through a series of lectures and exercises. Advanced techniques are discussed concerning how to lead an audit in all phases: Opening meeting, document review, worker and manager interviews, writing corrective action requests, and conducting a closing meeting. The new course focuses on enhancing individual auditor competencies. Although targeted to SA8000 and BSCI auditors, it is valuable to all social compliance auditors. The course also introduces SAI's new conceptual framework for improving auditor performance - Attitude, Skills and Knowledge (ASK). By breaking auditor performance into these three areas, the training allows the SAI Trainers and the attendees to isolate performance issues and develop solutions through the group exercises. A participant of the new course in Milan commented that the simulated audit provided her with an immersive learning experience, and the document reviews and mock interviews were very hands-on and investigative. Demand for SAI's SA8000 auditor training remains strong in Europe and Asia, accompanied by a growing number of inquiries from the Middle East and Africa. The diverse backgrounds of participants and trainers create an exceptional forum for understanding the unique cultural issues that every factory faces. Participants come from varying backgrounds, and SAI is pleased to notice an increasing number of local NGOs being trained to conduct social audits. Our trainings draw an increasingly diverse array of participants - different backgrounds, experience levels, and audit systems (not just SA8000 but BSCI, ICTI and various codes) - and we are expanding and adapting our trainings accordingly. SAI will offer this advanced course in over a dozen locations around the world in 2010. Dates and locations will be announced shortly. To view the current training schedules, click here |
Timberland Launches Interactive "Voices of Challenge" Dialogue and Publications to Supplement New CSR Report |
Last October, Timberland released its 2007-2008 CSR report and
simultaneously launched a new stakeholder dialogue focused on challenges that
responsible businesses face. To complement the CSR report, Timberland has
issued four complementary " Dig Deeper" papers focused on
climate, products, workplaces, and service. Timberland's CSR report and Dig
Deeper papers are available online at www.earthkeeper.com/csr. The Workplaces paper is titled " Responsibility Beyond Factory
Walls: Engaging Workers & Strengthening Communities." The paper
details Timberland's approach, specifically highlighting the company's
transition from compliance checklists to worker-inclusive factory assessments;
the role of brands in promoting fair, safe, and non-discriminatory working
conditions; and how the company is working to create sustainable living
environments for workers and their communities. Timberland is pleased to invite SAI's network to join the new online
dialogue to share information, discuss key challenges, and learn from other
stakeholders. This dialogue, entitled " Voices of Challenge,"
aims to create a global conversation that will lead to collaborative
problem solving. Some of the thought leaders that have helped to frame issues
include Li Qiang of China Labor Watch, Scott Nova of Workers Rights Consortium,
and worker groups from Brazil
and China. To take part in this interactive dialogue, please join Timberland online at www.earthkeeper.com/voicesofchallenge. Timberland is an Explorer member of SAI's Corporate Programs. |
From Cotton Seed to Consumer:
Anvil Knitwear Inc. Announces New Interactive Website |
On 13 November, SAI Corporate Programs member, Anvil Knitwear, Inc. announced the launch of an interactive website- www.TrackMyT.com, which documents the complete journey and environmental impact of a
t-shirt, from a cotton-seed into the consumer's hands. The website chronicles
the journey for consumers to explore the cotton farms, gin and spinners, as
well as Anvil's textile mill, cut and sew plants, and distribution facility
just through putting in the tracking number printed on the each shirt. The website specifically tracks t-shirts for youth ages two to 12,
and was developed to appeal to both children and adults. Utilizing
educational components such as pop-up messages and graphics, alongside lesson
plans for teachers that focus on the environmental, historical and social
aspects of manufacturing, buying, and owning a t-shirt, TrackMyT.com puts forth a new message about methods of demonstrating supply chain
transparency. The website also keeps up with Anvil's commitment its social and
environmental responsibility by exploring the differences between organic and
conventional cotton farming, and calculating the carbon footprint of each step
in the manufacturing process. Anvil Knitwear, Inc. has been a signatory member of SAI's Corporate Programs since 2007, which is the highest commitment a company can make towards the SA8000 standard. In 2008, Anvil was ranked as the world's sixth-largest organic program, and the largest domestic purchaser of U.S.-grown certified organic cotton and transitional cotton (cotton in the process of being certified to organic certification standards.)
Please join us in visiting Anvil's exciting website, www.TrackMyT.com
For more information about Anvil, please visit www.anvilknitwear.com and www.anvilcsr.com |
Global Launch of Asia Floor Wage
On 7 October, 2009-the ILO's International Day for Decent Work- the Asia Floor Wage (AFW) Alliance launched a global campaign to raise wages in the garment industry. Events took place in New Delhi, India, Europe, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, the U.K., and the U.S. The campaign targets giant retailers and prominent brands to assure workers receive a fair share of the immense value their labor creates in the global garment chain.
The AFW is a strategy for fighting poverty; and for promoting equitable economic development, decent labor standards, and decent working conditions. Its initial focus is on Asia as the largest hub for garment manufacturing, employing around one hundred million workers, the majority of whom are women. The AFW Alliance for a living wage, founded in 2005, is comprised of 70 trade unions, labor and human rights organizations, development NGOs, women's rights groups, and academics in 17 countries across Asia, Europe and North America.
For more information, visit http://www.asiafloorwage.org
Embedding Gender in Sustainability Reporting-
A Practitioner's Guide
 On October 27, 2009, IFC and GRI launched a joint publication "Embedding Gender in Sustainability Reporting - A Practitioner's Guide" at the 2009 CSR Asia Summit in Kuala
Lumpur. This educational resource was produced
to help organizations using the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework embed
material gender issues in their sustainability reports. The publication
highlights existing and emerging business drivers for improving practices and
reporting on material gender issues. It
also discusses legal and ethical imperatives for reporting on gender issues. The
Guide offers practical steps on how to integrate gender in sustainability
reporting.
To download a PDF version of the full report, click here
To access the executive summary, click here
To access the press release, click here
For more information, visit www.ifc.org/genderreporting and www.globalreporting.org/CurrentPriorities/GenderandReporting
On
October 28, SAI Advisory Board member Achille Tonani participated in an international convention in Rome sponsored by Italian
organization Valore Sociale entitled "Business and Human Rights
- Corporate Social Responsibility, Accountability, and Control of the Supply
Chain." The conference provided an overview of the recent
debates regarding globalization's effects on the respect for human rights and
the environment in the entire supply chain of value added production. Mr.
Tonani is the Head of Sustainability, Governance and Innovation Sector at RINA
S.p.A, an SA8000 accredited certification body based in Italy. Mr.
Tonani took part in a roundtable discussion on Socio-Environmental
certifications as CSR instruments, with a focus on the Valore Sociale
standard.
For more
information about RINA please visit click here
For more information about Valore Sociale, click here
Just Supply Chains Workshop 4: Lean Manufacturing and
Labor Standards
On October 29, SAI Program Director Judy Gearhart attended a conference entitled " Just Supply Chains Workshop 4: Lean Manufacturing and Labor Standards." The conference took place at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT), and was organized by the MIT-Stanford University Just Supply Chains Project and the Play Fair Sportswear Working Group. The conference explored the concepts of lean manufacturing, living wages, and other impacts on supply chains. Attendees were academic researchers, company managers, NGO and trade union representatives, who shared information and experiences, and discussed whether or not, or how, lean manufacturing practices contribute to improved working conditions. |
Interns play an important role here at SAI. This season, two interns have joined us from diverse sectors of finance and law. We are pleased to welcome Hazel Lalas and Krysta Campbell, and to introduce them, in their own words:
 Hazel Lalas
My
background to date has been centered on corporate governance and socially
responsible investing. In 2009, I received an MBA in International Business at Brandeis University. After, I started as a
Research Analyst at Institutional Shareholder Services and in this capacity, I performed executive compensation
analysis and research on the board structure and policies of publicly listed
firms and mutual funds in the U.S.
market. I advanced into the Senior
Analyst position for sustainability research, during which I prepared in-depth
analyses and impartial examinations of EAFE (European, Australasian and Far
Eastern) firms, as well as S&P 500 companies across environmental and social
indicators, including ILO core conventions.
I chose to
intern at SAI because my passion revolves around driving for change and
improvement, and advancing sustainable
development. By interning at SAI, I hope to better understand the advantages of facility certifications, as well as
strengthen my knowledge on ethical supply chain management, fundamental labor
rights, and thereby deliver significant contributions to make the SAI a more
effective channel to promote its priorities on human rights. I am truly excited to work on several
projects under Eileen Kaufman's supervision including evaluation of UN Global
Compact members' specific description of their support for these
principles.
Krysta Campbell
I studied
law at the University in London and was called to the Bar in 2006. After,
I worked for Barclays Bank Plc in its Global Retail and Commercial Bank
Litigation Department. In 2009, I went to work for a law firm to experience the
difference between working in-house and in-private practice. I realized that my
passion was not in banking and finance law, and I wanted to try something
different. I enjoyed studying human rights law and wanted to gain work
experience in human rights. Last month, I moved to New York to pursue this interest.
SAI's work
is multifaceted and addresses human rights issues at the core which was of real
interest to me. I am currently working
with Craig Moss and Jane Hwang in the Corporate Programs and Training Team
where I have the opportunity to become more aware of corporate social
responsibility, how facilities are certified, and the challenges faced by them during
the audit process to become certified. I am excited to have the opportunity to
learn about SAI and the impact that SA8000 has on the certified facilities and
on improving working conditions for employees and also how SAAS accredits
course providers of training on SA8000.
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Announcements and Upcoming Events
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Tchibo GmbH's "Worldwide Enhancement of Social Quality (WE)
Project" Upcoming Stakeholder Conferences
Tchibo GmbH's
collaborative public private partnership project-- the Worldwide Enhancement of
Social Quality (WE) Project-aims to improve working conditions in production
facilities in Asia. Initiated by Tchibo GmbH and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in 2007, the project is co-financed by the German Federal
Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The project promotes an approach to improving working conditions similar to methodologies that SAI has employed in several regions, by emphasizing dialogue and workplace cooperation between managers and workers at production facilities.
After two years of implementation, the pilot project is now in its final stage. The project partners have accumulated many lessons learned on how to create real change in the factories that benefit managers and workers. In an effort to share these lessons and experiences, as well as identify future options for collaboration, Tchibo GmbH and GTZ will convene WE Stakeholder Conferences in each project market. Within the conferences the suppliers themselves (management and worker) will present their best practices and the progress they made in terms of working conditions.
The dates for these
conferences are as follows:
- December 10th 2009 in Shenzhen, China
- December 17th 2009 in Dhaka, Bangladesh
- January 29th 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand
Anyone interested to join should please contact Ms. Sandra Groth at
Sandra.Groth@tchibo.de
For more information on the project, please visit
www.we-socialquality.com/
Tchibo Gmbh is an Explorer member of SAI's Corporate Programs, and Achim
Lohrie, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Tchibo GmbH, is the Chairman of
SAI's Advisory Board. Ethical Corporation's 3rd Annual Corporate Responsibility
Reporting and Communications Summit
25-26 November 2009, Regent's Park Marriott Hotel, London
Ethical Corporation reports
that its summit will provide companies and NGOs with a benchmark against the
best, and demonstrate how to communicate positive sustainability messages.
Tools will be given to create a readable, transparent and precise corporate
responsibility report based on strategy, innovation, transparency, and
readability. Attending this summit will provide: innovative and practical
agenda of concrete best practices; advice from the experts; topical and
relevant programs; focus on interactivity; extension of networks and
improvement of support system. For more information, click here
Intertek's Ninth Annual Ethical Sourcing Forum
March 18-19 2010, New York City
The Ethical Sourcing Forum (ESF) is an
industry event that brings together members of the global sustainability
community in order to address emerging sustainability and ethical supply chain
challenges. Intertek reports that attendees of the ESF will find applied innovation and the latest
solutions-development processes that yield social and environmental progress
while advancing core business objectives. Attendees will also learn how these decision-making elements can drive sustainability success. For more information, click here
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AccountAbility Seeks a Senior Partner- Collaborative Governance
AccounAbility
is seeking a successful candidate to join their innovative partnership
structure as a Senior Partner. In this role, the successful candidate will have the responsibility for leading AccountAbility's Collaborative Governance (CG) work stream and the coordination of existing portfolio of CG projects and initiatives, including project oversight, management of finances, funder relationship management, partner relationship management and project management of relevant staff. AccountAbility
is a global non-profit organization that works to promote
accountability innovations for sustainable development. Founded in
1995, it has bases in Beijing, Geneva, London, Sao Paulo and Washington
D.C. and Country Representatives in Brazil, Canada, China, Jordan,
Spain, Sweden and the US.For more information, click here |
Internships with SAI and SAAS
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SAI and Social Accountability Accreditation Services
(SAAS) seek highly motivated interns interested in research, management
procedures, and the promotion of ethical workplaces worldwide. These
positions require interest in how businesses implement standards for respecting
labor rights and addressing overall workplace issues.
Applicants should possess initiative, work independently, and be a
strong organizer who can multitask and meet deadlines effectively.
Excellent computer skills required, including knowledge of Excel,
Access, Web development and Outlook. Candidates should have a
commitment to human rights, labor rights, and development issues. Internship positions are unpaid and based in our New York office.
For more information about internships with SAI, and to apply click here
For more information about internships with SAAS, and to apply click here |
We invite you to continually send any updates for us to publish in our monthly newsletters!
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Social Accountability International (SAI) is an international non-governmental organization that
promotes workers rights through multi stakeholder collaboration including
companies, trade unions and NGOs. It assists partners in the development and
use of practical tools, particularly the SA8000 standard, for safe and decent
workplace conditions.
SAI and the SA8000 standard focus on the human elements of
the workplace and the supply chain. SA8000 is the standard that considers the
importance of each job and strives to recognize the equal dignity of each
person involved in the supply chain - from the worker to the retailer to
the consumer. Today SA8000 certification covers over 2000 facilities in 64 countries, across 66 industries, and over 1.1 million employees.
SAI is one of the world's leading social compliance
training organizations, having provided training to over 15,000 people. SAI
courses integrate compliance with management systems issues.
SAI is headquartered in the United States with representations in Brazil, China, India, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Spain, and Vietnam.
SAI
15 West 44th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10036
(212) 684-1414
Website: http://www.sa-intl.org
For newsletter inquiries contact:
Joleen Ong
jong@sa-intl.org |
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