|
FAQ about BSCI certification
Q: What is BSCI certification?
A: As the issue of corporate social responsibility continues to gain international attention, it is urgent to develop common actions. Many international groups have taken the initiative to submit this issue for internal discussion, such as the United Nations' "Global Action Plan", the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s "Principles for Multinational Enterprises", and the "World Trade Organization (WTO)", which are considering adding social standards to multilateral trade regulations.
The European Commission also issued a joint communiqué on social issues in 2002. Some companies and associations, such as the Foreign Trade Association, also participated in the discussion and took initiatives. However, the European retail industry emphasizes the principle of voluntariness rather than mandatory execution, and abides by the corresponding governmental and organizational regulations in the international community. Since 2002, the Foreign Trade Association (FTA), headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, has been committed to establishing a common platform for many different codes of conduct and monitoring systems in Europe, and laying the foundation for the establishment of a common European monitoring system. In 2002 and 2003, major retail companies and associations held several seminars to establish the framework of such a system. In March 2003, FTA formally established the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), with the aim of formulating implementation measures and procedures for European businesses to comply with social responsibility plans. Simply put, BSCI certification is a certification that measures whether a company has met the social responsibility standards recognized by European official and private non-governmental organizations. Q: What standards does BSCI certification use?
A: BSCI adopts SA8000 standard
As an independent social responsibility (human rights) organization, BSCI itself has not formulated any standards. It cooperates with SAI, the promulgator of the first global social responsibility standard, and adopts SA8000 as the basis for its audit. With the support of SAI and the strong backing of FTA, and the reference of ETI to share the social responsibility report database, BSCI has eliminated repeated third-party factory audits. In recent years, the number of BSCI members has expanded rapidly, reaching 644 at present. They are all large traders, famous brands, and large supermarket chains, including LIDL, Metro, AIDI, etc. Q: Which organizations can carry out BSCI certification?
A: BSCI has appointed some well-known notary firms as the executive bodies of its certification, including the following notary firms that can carry out BSCI certification:
ALGI, APCER, Bureau Veritas, CISE, DNV, Eurocert, HKQAA, Intertek - Intertek Testing Services, IQNet Ltd, RINA - Registro Italiano Navale Group, SGS- Société Générale de Surveillance, STR-Registrar, LLC (STR) Formerly CSCC, TUV NORD CERT GmbH, TUV Rheinland Group, TUV SUD Group. Q: What is the scope of BSCI certification audit?
A: BSCI audit scope
Because the requirements of the SA8000 standard are too high and difficult for general factories to meet, when BSCI borrowed this standard, it classified the easy-to-achieve parts as Part B, and the more difficult-to-implement parts as Part C (recommended parts). Part C is not included in the scoring in the factory inspection. Part B includes 13 major items, including: B1-Management Practices, B2-Documentary Evidence, B3-Working Hours, B4-Remuneration, B5-Child Labor/Underage Labor, B6-Forced Labor/Prisoner Labor/Discipline, B7-Freedom of Association, B8-Discrimination, B9-Working Conditions, B10-Health and Welfare Facilities, B11-Occupational Safety and Health, B12-Dormitories, B13-Environment. Each major item contains 3 to 20 problem points. Some serious items of these problem points will directly lead to a 0 score in the factory inspection.
Q: How to apply for BSCI certification as a factory?
A: This may be one of the most concerned issues for manufacturers supplying to Western Europe, because many orders in 2011 require BSCI certification. First of all, if you supply to LIDL, the customer will designate STR or ITS to send auditors to audit. After 2010, BV also received some LIDL orders. LIDL provides three factory inspection opportunities. If you do not get 2 points in these three times, the factory needs to apply to STR or ITS and pay the corresponding fees.
If it is other members, such as customers like Metro and JOKA, the factory only needs to apply to the notary office. The notary office will determine the man-days and fees for the factory inspection based on the number of people in the factory. For factories with less than 100 people, the man-days will be 1.5. As the number of people increases, the man-days will be increased accordingly according to the BSCI standards. After the factory deposits the factory inspection fee into the notary office account, the notary office will arrange the auditor's schedule. Generally, the factory inspection will be carried out about one month after payment, depending on the task arrangement of the notary office. If the notary office has a lot of tasks during this period, it may take a long time to queue up. If it is in July and August every year, which is the traditional off-season for these notary offices, the arrangement will be faster accordingly. Q: Is BSCI certification difficult?
A: Among the factories in China, almost none can fully comply with the BSCI standard and get 2 points. For example, if there is no day off every seven days, no matter what the reason is, this one issue will result in 0 points. Therefore, it is necessary to do some preparation before applying for certification audit. Q: How recognized is the BSCI certification? How many customers recognize this certification?
A: BSCI certification is now more widely accepted. BSCI has 644 members. Many retailers in Europe are waiting or applying to become BSCI members. Some retailers in the United States are also beginning to accept BSCI certification. Because BSCI was initiated by the European Foreign Trade Agency (FTA), its future development is likely to exceed or has already surpassed social responsibility organizations such as ICTI, WRAP, and ETI. Q: How long does it take to get the BSCI audit results and how to check them?
On the day of the audit, the auditor will issue an audit summary signed by the factory. The auditor will not tell the factory how many points they have scored. Generally, about two weeks later, the notary public will upload the report to the BSCI database, which will generate the factory's DBID number and password. The factory can log in to the BSCI official database with the DBID number and password to check whether it has become a qualified supplier of BSCI. The first time you log in to the database, you will be required to sign an online Customer Code of Conduct Agreement. If your factory does not get 0 points, then you are a qualified supplier of BSCI. Of course, LIDL requires 2 points. |
