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February 2014
1. Brazil Worker Engagement: Participant Views
2. Clearing Confusion with SA8000
3. SA8000: 2014 Standard Public Consultation Open
4. "Putting the Pillars into Practice"
4. Tainted Carpets Statement
5. SAI Signs Agreement with Extremadura, Spain
6. SA8000 Auditor Trainings: Courses in Turkey and India
7. Highlights & Announcements
Jobs & Internships 
Coming Events

 

Responsible Electronics: Human Rights Symposium

Brussels, March 19-20, 2014

 
 
13th Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative Workshop

Brussels, March 17-18, 2014

 
 
Ethical Sourcing Forum

New York City

March 27-28 

 

SAI to Present on
Worker - Manager Collaboration to Achieve Rapid Results and Drive Sustainable Change
     

 

Pillars in Practice Program
 

 

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Top 3 News Stories 
Training Courses 

-Getting Started in Your Company

-Building Your Internal Social Performance Team  

 

  SA8000 Fire Safety Webinar  

Auditing for Fire Safety in the SA8000 & BSCI System
[Mandatory for SA8000/BSCI Auditors]
 

 SA8000 Basic Auditor Training

Bangalore, India
April 21-25

Santiago, Chile
 
April 21-25 

 SA8000 Advanced Auditor Training 

  Mexico City, Mexico
March 4-6
New York City
, USA 
March 5-7
 

SA8000 Online Training 

SA8000 Online Revision Course
  
NGOs & Trade Unions
Complimentary seats available for NGO & trade union representatives. For more information, email SAI Training Coordinator Stephanie Wilson at [email protected].

  

 
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Social Accountability International (SAI) is a non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization established to advance the human rights of workers by promoting decent work conditions, labor rights, and corporate social responsibility through voluntary standards and capacity building. 

 

SAI is headquartered in the United States with field representation in Brazil, China, Costa Rica, India, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Philippines, Switzerland, and UAE.


SAI- Human Rights at Work

For newsletter inquiries contact: SAI Director of Operations Michelle Bhattacharyya, [email protected] 
February2014
Brazil Worker Engagement: Participant Views
Participants Speak out on the Program
Team Building in the Brazil Worker Engagement Program

 

 

 

Last month, we shared some of the positive results as companies in Waves 1-3 of our Brazil Worker Engagement Program completed their 100-day Social Fingerprint Rapid Results (SFRR) projects in Occupational Health and Safety. This week we share participant comments on the program. 

 

 

 "Before, my collaborators had some fears to talk to the supervisors, now with the project the access is different and we can address any problem." (Worker, T Christina)

 

"We have a lot of projects at our company, but this project went deeper and brought a lot of results and a lot more creativity to the area of Health and Safety." (Worker, Ajinomoto)

 

"Before the issue was restricted to the Health and Safety committee and the Fire brigade, but now we could reach out to everybody to ensure use of Individual Protective equipment, now everybody is involved and we have been very interactive with all staff." (Worker, Marcel BR)

 

 ""The main difference of this project was the great commitment of everybody, we had other projects in the factory which sometimes stopped before completed, as the staff was not involved and committed to the objectives." (Manager, Bignardi)

 

"We were able to show to our Senior Management, that our efforts as a team were able to reach the results even in a time of lack of financial resources, this was for me one of the most rewarding moments." (Manager, Abengoa Industry) 

 

  "The project was great and provided us, through the trainings in S�o Paulo a lot of competence to talk about Health and Safety to our colleagues." (Worker, Abengoa Agricola) 

 

  "The physical effort was reduced significantly and this was one of the most rewarding results for me." (Worker, Bignardi) 

 

The Worker Engagement program builds and coaches peer-selected teams of workers and managers to jointly develop and implement 100-day projects to achieve ambitious health and safety goals together. The program is a partnership between SAI and Rapid Results Institute (RRI). It builds on SAI's experience in workplace standards, management systems and worker-manager training programs, and RRI's experience in project facilitation and change management. In addition, the program leverages Good World Solutions (GWS)'s LaborLink, a mobile technology to survey workers and measure the awareness and impact of the program in an efficient and anonymous manner. 

 

 

For more information about the Brazil Worker Engagement Program visit www.sa-intl.org/brazilworkerengagement, or contact Director - Training and Corporate Programs - Jane Hwang - [email protected].
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Clarifying Confusion with SA8000
Interview with SAI Director of Field Services Doug DeRuisseau to discuss Common Questions Associated with SA8000 Certification
 
SAI Director of Field Services, Doug DeRuisseau
SAI HQ:  Can a certified company have one or more worker representatives even though there is a Trade Union representing some of the workers in the facility?

 

Doug DeRuisseau: In most circumstances, we would expect that the trade union representative will function as the worker representative. It is certainly possible, however, that a worker representative (or more if needed) could be selected within the company by their peers regardless of the fact that there are some union members represented by a Trade Union. The goal is to ensure workers have the right to exercise their choice to elect their representative(s) through free elections and it would be up to them to decide in this matter. Management cannot interfere with this in any way.  Considerations would typically include:

  • Percentage of workers represented by the trade Union
  • The Trade Union's desire to take part in the process as the "representative" of its workers.
  • The size and make-up of the facility which could involve remote sites and multiple departments.
  • The workers' desire to avail themselves of the right to have their own representative(s).

SAI HQ: Can we audit a client's supplier for conformance to the SA8000 standard if the subcontractor's facility is in close proximity to the certified organization in order to assure that the supplier is meeting appropriate requirements?

 

Doug DeRuisseau: Absolutely not, since it is the client's responsibility to demonstrate to the auditor that the supplier is meeting the requirements. The audit days allocated by Procedure 200 based upon the necessary days based on the number of employees and other factors; this does not provide for spending any of that time inspecting another site.

 

  
For more information about SA8000 frequently asked questions, visit www.sa-intl.org/SA8000FAQ or contact Senior Manager of Research and Stakeholder Relations Alex Katz - [email protected].

SA8000:2014 Standard Public Consultation Open  
Interested Parties Continue to Submit Comments and Suggestions on the Draft SA8000:2014 

 

 

SAI continues to invite all interested parties to participate in the revision of the SA8000 standard. For 60-days, beginning December 18, 2013 and ending on February 16, 2014, a proposal for the 2014 version of SA8000 is open for public consultation.  SAI hopes many stakeholders as possible will participate in the consultation process-- by entering their comments in a tool created using Survey Monkey. The more comments received, the more confident SAI is in revising the standard in line with the expectations of its users. Here is the link to the Public Consultation platform and to the Standard revision page on the SAI website.

 

All comments will be transparently exhibited on the SAI website, and a report will be posted following the close of the consultation period, discussing which comments were used to further revise the standard and which significant comments will be saved for discussion at the next revision.

 

To date, comments have been received from over 169 participants, representing 41 countries, including those in North, Central and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Thus, the geographical representation of commenters meets our stakeholder participation goals, which call for equal participation among geographic stakeholder groups. Notably, the most participation has come from the countries of Italy, India and China, which are the three countries with the highest number of SA8000-certified facilities.

 

 

For more information about the SA8000 Standard, visit www.sa-intl.org/sa8000 or contact Sr. Manager of Stakeholder Relations & Research Alex Katz - [email protected].  

Pillars in Practice Multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee
Concluding MACs in Bangladesh, Nicaragua, and Zimbabwe

On March 5, 11 and 26 the concluding Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Committees (MACs) of the Pillars in Practice Project will take place in Dhaka, Bangladesh; Managua, Nicaragua; and Harare, Zimbabwe, respectively. Hosted by the local implementing partners CSR Centre (Bangladesh), uniRSE (Nicaragua) and ZELA (Zimbabwe) and international partner, the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR), the MACs will focus on the project's status in advancing the knowledge, understanding and implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in the countries.

 

Multi-stakeholder participants will be invited to share their perspectives on next steps necessary for sustaining the successes and learnings of the project, including replication of existing efforts to implement the UNGPs, the training sessions that were part of the project and the cooperation among diverse stakeholders. Results from the MACs and all materials produced during the course of the project will be available for download from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights website. These materials include localized due diligence recommendations and best practices in Bangladesh's ready-made-garment sector, Nicaragua's agriculture sector and Zimbabwe's mining sector; and a complete set of the training handbooks tailored to the countries and sectors.

 


'Like' the Pillars in Practice Program on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1dF8xMN.  For more information, contact SAI Sr. Manager of Research & Stakeholder Relations Alex Katz- [email protected].  

Tainted Carpets
SAI Supports Harvard Report's Call for Cooperative Inspections

 

 

TAINTED CARPETS, an investigative report about working conditions at suppliers to Indian hand-made carpet exporters, was published by the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights , Harvard School of Public Health, at the end of January. The report was based on field research conducted by a team led by Siddarth Kara.
 
SAI strongly supports the report's call for more cooperation in inspections, in finding and remediating abuses-- and ultimately in enabling consumers to know they are buying carpets made only by workers of legal working age whose rights are being respected.
 
The handmade carpet supply chain is multi-layered, often with many intermediary companies between the US or EU buyers and the people who are actually weaving the carpets. Carpet weaving is typically done in small workshops that are subcontractors to the exporting company, and there are often additional intermediaries between the exporting company and the workshop. All of this complicates the control of the supply chain and further distances the actual carpet weaving site from the US or EU buyers. According to the report, children [under 15] or young laborers [workers under 18] were found in about half the sites visited by the report's researchers. Forced labor and underpayment of minimum wages were also prevalent.
  
Any SA8000-certified carpet exporting companies are required to meet the SA8000 standard for their own employees and also to have a management system for supplier control to prevent or remediate any child or forced labor at subcontractors. 
 
GoodWeave, an NGO focused on ending child labor and improving labor conditions in the carpet industry has issued a statement supporting the report's recommendations.  SAI supports GoodWeave's statement that certification and independent inspection systems can help address many of the problems identified.  
 
SAI and several other organizations are working with the ISEAL alliance to establish a reliable and widely accepted living wage estimation  methodology. This will further address labor concerns and issues faced by workers around the world as well as those in the hand-made carpet industry in India.
       

To download a copy of the report, please visit http://fxb.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2014/01/Tainted-Carpets-Released-01-28-14.pdf 

For more information, contact SAI Director of Operations Michelle Bhattacharyya - [email protected].  

 SAI Signs Historic Agreement with the Government of Extremadura, Spain

The Government of Extremadura takes a Step to Advance Responsible Public Procurement

  

 

 

 

On November 26, 2013, Cristina Teniente, the Vice President, Spokesman and Minister of Labor, Enterprise and Innovation of the Government of Extremadura signed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agreements with four organizations: SAI, AENOR,  For�tica and Fundaci�n M�s Familia. These accords permit inclusion of enterprises certified according to the aforementioned organizations' Standards (with SAI this refers to the SA8000 Standard) to the Extremadura register of socially responsible enterprises. This is one of the Government of Extremadura's many actions to promote CSR, employment and sustainable lives in the region, an initiative that it dubs "Employ your CSR."

 

With the signing of the agreement with SAI, Extremadura became the first autonomous community in Spain to enter into accords of this type with CSR related-entities at both the national and international level. Although representatives of SAI were unable to attend the signing event, we sent the following message which was read in both Spanish and English, "We are delighted to be involved with this program of responsible procurement and hope that SA8000 is useful to workers and companies in the region and are eager to provide advice and tools to help implement this initiative." 

   

 

The Extremadura government press release can be read in Spanish here http://www.sa-intl.org/ExtremaduraCSR For more information about the Government of Extremadura's initiative, contact Sr. Manager of Stakeholder Relations & Research Alex Katz - [email protected].  

 

 

 

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SA8000 Auditor Trainings Courses in
Turkey and China 

Snapshots from the courses that took place in Istanbul (Turkey) and Shenzhen (China)

SA8000 Basic Auditor Training course in Istanbul, Turkey  on January 27-31, 2014 with SAI Lead Trainer Doug DeRuisseau [Photo credit: Doug DeRuisseau]

SA8000 Advanced Auditor Training course in Shenzhen, China  on December 25-27, 2013 with SAI Lead Trainer Mike Lee [Photo credit: Phoenix Zhang]


Learn more about SAI's SA8000 Basic & Advanced auditor training course on SAI's website. For more information about SAI's SA8000 Auditor Training courses, visit sa-intl.org/trainingschedule or contact Emily Crain - [email protected]

Highlights & Announcements

International Workshop on Worker-Management Dialogue in China: Challenges, Opportunities and Solutions  Dec. 17, 2013, SAI trainer Jane Liu attended the International Workshop on Worker-Management Dialogue in China: Challenges, Opportunities and Solutions" organized by IDH, GIZ, and China WTO Tribune, in  Guangzhou, China.  
SAI's Jane Liu (pictured middle) participating in a panel on program methodology and worker-manager dialogue in China

 

The workshop focused on public private cooperation and Worker-Management Dialogue in China.  Gathered were Tchibo-GIZ WE (Worldwide Enhancement of Social Quality), ILO SCORE (Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises) and IDH Electronics Program WMD (Worker Management Dialogue). Discussion centered around challenges, opportunities and solutions of Worker Management Dialogue in China. More than 60 participants from associations, multinational corporations, service providers, suppliers and NGOs attended this workshop and joined the interactive discussion.

  

Jane Liu was invited as one of the key speakers to share her experiences around the questions such as' Which programs and methodologies are most suitable for China' and 'What challenges exist and what success factors can be defined for up-scaling worker-management dialogue?