Verité set the standard in the field of Social Responsibility for our innovative approaches to helping companies, workers, and suppliers understand and overcome the obstacles to achieving fair, legal, and safe work environments in the global economy.
Typical social compliance auditing may not illuminate all working condition problems and opportunities for improvement within any given business. We pioneered a comprehensive model that integrates workers as key stakeholders to effectively monitor companies’ CSR conditions. Our programs focus on the root causes of non-compliance and the understanding, skill, and systems needed to resolve them. We have strong capacity for the in-depth and quality of multi-source information on the cause analysis of workplace problems. fun88任天堂 social and environmental assessment programs are known for the high credibility of our findings and the value of our recommendations.
We customize our projects to help clients understand the unique risks they may face.
Comprehensive, tailored approaches illustrate what is really happening within supply chains. The information we gather on the specific issues, conditions, and root causes allows for the appropriate corrective measures to be put into place.
Verité’s comprehensive Social Compliance Audit – Manufacturing and Processing Industry – This evaluates facility conditions against fun88任天堂 Best Practices and reflecting Verité’s 20 years of experience conducting social compliance assessments in manufacturing and processing workplaces. The service incorporates extensive management and worker interviews, an inspection of the physical plant, the collection of documents, detailed analysis, and verification. A thorough final report communicates baseline workplace conditions and recommendations for improvement.
We can also offer to include the following standards within the Comprehensive audit model:
- SEDEX
- Fair Factories Clearinghouse
- Walt Disney Company
- Fair Labor Association (FLA)
- SA8000 preparatory
- Fair Trade preparatory
Findings from all aspects of the comprehensive audit are fact-checked and integrated into a next-steps Corrective Action Report, which serves as the basis for Management Action Planning with the factory.
Manufacturing and Farming – High Risk Investigations provide a focused in-depth evaluation of workplace situations that have led to high-risk issues. This also includes both onsite and offsite assessments, and stakeholder interviews.
Labor agent/broker services play an increasingly important role in the supply chain of multinational companies, providing suppliers with the required labor, but at the same time, there are also various risks associated. Labor intermediary assessment are based upon internationally accepted standards and local regulations. The processes and practices of recruitment and labor management are evaluated to help multinational companies and their suppliers control the risks related to labor migration in the supply chain.
Our agricultural assessments evaluate working conditions at farms and food production facilities against core ILO conventions and Verité’s Best Practice benchmarks for agriculture. Audits involve extensive interviews and leverage the organization’s understanding of the unique compliance challenges on farms of all sizes- ranging from family to smallholder, to large operations. Assessments conducted at:
- Farms
- Packing/Distribution Operations
- Processing/Shipping Operations
Our innovative worker interviews offer unmatched insight into on-the-ground working conditions. Verité can provide either stand-alone or integrated Worker Interview Packages.
We offer follow-up audit services, either as full re-audits, visits focused on issue-specific consultation, or remediation check-up visits designed to assess a supplier’s progress in corrective action.
Foreign Worker Assessments are focused on conditions at workplaces that employ foreign contract or migrant labor. These assessments are designed to detect labor abuses specific to the employment of foreign and migrant workers through in-depth and detailed analysis of how these workers are recruited, deployed, and employed.
Preparatory Assessments assist suppliers in measuring their compliance performance against common multi-stakeholder, brand, or certification programs.
RBA Audits are audits conducted in the electronics sector against the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Code of Conduct. These assessments cover labor, ethics, labor and ethics management systems, health and safety, environment, and EHS management systems within the RBA’s validated audit process (VAP). The final report is issued on the latest version of the RBA reporting tool in keeping with validated audit report (VAR) protocols.
Verité is a signatory of SLCP; a qualified verifier and training body, can provide SLCP verification and enterprise training services. With our rich experience in social responsibility management of the shoe and clothing industry, we can evaluate the integrity and accuracy of your self-assessment data professionally and objectively to help your enterprise quickly complete the SLCP verification and obtain verification report, and create a safe and healthy workplace with respect for workers’ rights.
Worker Surveys provide overarching, customized coverage for brands and suppliers to gain a broader understanding of working conditions.
This special audit assesses the supplier’s business ethics management system and practices in accordance with internationally accepted standards and local regulations, covering areas such as: anti-corruption, anti-bribery and acceptance of bribes; anti-obtaining commercial benefits through improper means; maintaining accuracy and real business activity records; protection of intellectual property rights; fair competition, etc.
GAP Inc.
GAP Inc. has worked with Verité for over a decade, and we continue to do so because of their vast knowledge and experience in the area of labor standards. Their expertise in Freedom of Association, program design and implementation, special investigations, worker voice, and management systems have contributed to the growth and development of our own programmatic efforts to ensure the people who that make our clothes are treated with dignity and respect.
Patagonia
In an unprecedented move in 2015, Patagonia reached beyond its Tier 1 finished goods suppliers to focus on Tier 2 fabric mills. Patagonia engaged Verité to conduct focused foreign contract worker (FCW) assessments, which revealed that it can take FCWs at material supplier factories in Taiwan up to two years of a three-year employment contract to pay off recruitment-related debt. Following the initial baseline FCW assessments, Verité worked with Patagonia to develop and roll out comprehensive Migrant Worker Employment Standards and Implementation Guidance. The standards cover every aspect of the employment relationship from screening labor brokers and worker recruitment to onsite management of migrant workers through the end of the contract. From June 1, 2015, suppliers and their brokers are prohibited from charging or collecting any recruitment-related fees or expenses to workers even if it is lawful to do so. If workers do pay fees, the suppliers must reimburse the workers. Patagonia also requires suppliers to reimburse workers hired before June 1, for any recruitment-related fees or expenses paid in excess of applicable legal limits.