Representatives from Tata Steel and DNV proudly present the SA8000 certificate in Jamshedpur, India for Tata Steel's ongoing successful demonstration of ongoing compliance to the SA8000 standard.

SAI is proud to recognize Tata Steel's three-time achievement of SA8000 certification, which was awarded at a presentation ceremony in Jamshedpur, India on August 27. The certificate was presented by SAAS-Accredited certification body, Det Norske Veritas (DNV) to Tata Steel for its ongoing compliance with SA8000. The company has achieved three successful cycles of SA8000 certification in 2004, 2007 and 2010, as SA8000 certification is up for renewal every 3 years. 

Present at the ceremony were H M Nerurkar, Managing Director of Tata Steel; Sanjiv Paul, Vice President of Corporate Services at Tata Steel and Chairman of the Managing Review Committee of SA8000; and Raghunath Pandey, President of the Tata Workers' Union. They presented with the certificate by N R Krishnakumar, Director of Operations, DNV Business Assurance, and Prasun Kundu, Chief Auditor from DNV.

During his acceptance speech, Mr. Nerurkar congratulated all employees and the core SA8000 team for helping to achieve this feat, and cautioned that as years pass, the norms to attain such certificates will become even more stringent and hence the company will strive for more improvement. He also mentioned the need to continue with the guidelines set forth by the first Chairman of the Company, Sir Dorabji Tata, over 100 years ago. >>Read more

Snapshot from SAI's Advisory Board meeting, Spring 2010 in New York

SAI is pleased to note that its multi-stakeholder Advisory Board's semi-annual meeting will convene on November 2-4 in Mumbai India. The meeting will bring together a diverse array of experts that represent businesses, trade unions, and NGOs.  The Advisory Board's technical expertise helps to inform SAI's leadership.

Advisory Board Chair, Achim Lohrie, Head of CSR at Tchibo GmbH, has played a critical role in shaping the strategic agenda for the meeting, and met to finalize it with SAI President Alice Tepper Marlin earlier this month in Hamburg, Germany. Over 20 participants will discuss key strategic issues, including how SAI can scale up to increase impact and effectiveness, and build alliances. Guest observers to the meeting include: Dr. Sasha Courville, ISEAL Alliance; Sanjay Kumar, SEWA; Priyadarshini Sharma, Tata Steel; and Shatadru Chattopadhayay, Solidaridad.

The meeting is generously hosted by SAI Advisory Board members, Kishor Chaukar and Anant Nadkarni, of the Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI). The location  is of particular strategic relevance, with the recent launch of the three-year public private parnership (PPP)- "Scaling Up Indian CSR  Initiatives"  >>Read more

Project Cultivar's local partners have made strides in the industry both by creating spaces for multi-stakeholder dialogue to bring about institutional change, and also by providing technical assistance via classical seminars and "cascade training." This latter is also called "training the trainer," a tool recently utilized by PASE with union leaders at Nicaragua's second largest sugar mill which employs over 5,000 workers. The data thus far are inspiring- the project has trained a total of 1,800 workers, 262 managers, and 208 government representatives/NGOs in the CAFTA-DR region in the agricultural sector - a traditionally informal economic sector where contracts are made by hand-shake and records are kept by memory. >>Read more

SAI Project Manager, Yolanda Brenes

Presentation on Social Compliance and its Business Benefits
SAI's Craig Moss Keynotes Ecopetrol Seminar in Bogota, Colombia
 

October 11-12 - "Protect, Respect and Remedy"- UN Civil Society Consultations on the Implementation of John Ruggie's Framework. SAI President Alice Tepper Marlin participated in these consultations at the UN in Geneva. The consultations provided an opportunity for global civil society leaders to offer their views to John Ruggie, the UN Special Representative to the Secretary General for Business and Human Rights, regarding the set of Guiding Principles for the implementation of the framework that will be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council for consideration in 2011.