SA8000 Certification Process

SA8000 Certification Process

1. CERTIFICATION PROGRAM SET-UP

Bureau Veritas partners with you to devise the right certification program based on your organization’s particular needs and priorities. This means determining which management systems to audit, and for how many sites.

For SA8000 Management System Certification, Bureau Veritas Geographic Certification Scope covers following countries.

Bangladesh, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Germany , Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Maldives, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Vietnam

Registering on SAI Database:

The organization seeking SA8000 certification shall register on SAI Database by selecting Bureau Veritas as your certification Body. To access the database, please click on the link below, or copy and paste the link directly into your browser: www.database.sa-intl.org

Performing Maturity Declaration (MD):

Formerly termed the “Independent Evaluation”, the MD is the assessment the auditor makes of the maturity of your management systems. Bureau Veritas Auditor will verify that you have completed and paid for the Self-Assessment within 6 months before the Stage 1 or Recertification audits.

The tools included in the certification process are:

  • Self-Assessment: Completed by the organization applying for an SA8000 certification, the self-assessment helps the organization's gain an understanding its management system maturity.
  • Maturity Declaration (formerly “Independent Evaluation”): Completed by Bureau Veritas Lead auditor, the independent evaluation is a verification of the organization’s management system maturity, and helps the organization identify strengths and weaknesses in its management system.

2. PRE-AUDIT

The pre-audit is an optional audit that evaluates your management system against specific requirements of the standard SA8000 to which you are seeking certification. Bureau Veritas provides a report detailing its findings and shall consist of non-binding findings with no recommended solutions. A pre-assessment audit shall be performed prior to the initial Stage 1 audit and shall not be performed in lieu of a Stage 1 audit. The time spent on a pre-assessment audit shall not be considered part of the Stage 1 and/or Stage 2 process.

3. STAGE I AUDIT

Bureau Veritas evaluates your readiness for a stage II audit through an initial assessment of various criteria such as your understanding of the standard’s requirements, the scope of your management system and your internal audit systems. The category of findings raised during a Stage 1 audit shall only be Risk of non-conformance & Observations.

4. STAGE II AUDIT

Bureau Veritas auditor reviews your management system and provides a detailed report of findings, including nonconformities, observations and opportunities for improvement where relevant. You will have a limited amount of time to implement corrective actions in the case of any non-conformities. The gap between stage I & stage II audit shall not be more than six months.

5. INITIAL CERTIFICATION DECISION

After completion of all necessary audits, Bureau Veritas conducts an impartial review of findings and decides whether or not to grant certification.

6. SURVEILLANCE & FOLLOW-UP REVIEWS

All surveillance audits shall be conducted as semi announce audit and within window period of lower and higher permissible limits. Follow up reviews shall be conducted after each surveillance audits and post recertification audit as per window period defined in SAAS procedure 200. The Follow up reviews may be conducted onsite or Offsite.

7. RECERTIFICATION

Full certification reassessment takes place automatically every three years to ensure ongoing conformity. This must be completed six month before expiry of the existing Certificate of Approval. Careful scheduling of the recertification audit is crucial to avoiding lapses in certification.

8. SPECIAL AUDIT

Special audits are typically performed for the following reasons:

  • Extension/expansion of a client organisation’s scope of SA8000 certification.
  • To investigate a complaint, whether generated internally, from a stakeholder, from a client organisation or from SAAS.
  • As part of a calibration/duplicate audit process.
  • To verify on-site, the effectiveness of a Corrective Action Plan produced as response to the raising of a Critical, Major or Time-Bound nonconformity.
  • As the result of issues raised during a Follow-Up Review.

9. SUSPENSION, WITHDRAWAL CANCELLATION OR RESTORATION OF THE CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL

Bureau Veritas might refuse, suspend, withdraw, expand or reduce scope of certification, extend or cancel the Certificate of Approval at any time and shall give the client written notice. If such actions are deemed necessary by Bureau Veritas, the client will be fully briefed and will be given every possible opportunity to take corrective action before a final decision is taken on what action Bureau Veritas should take after the expiration of such notification period. Unannounced visits / Special Audits may also be conducted as a follow up on clients which certification has been suspended. Suspension is lifted and certification is restored upon satisfactory clearance of non-conformities and verification by Bureau Veritas of the compliance of client’s management system