KANSAS CITY, MO — The word “auditing” conjures up images of accountants peering over financial records or maintaining quality assurance standards such as ISO 9001. However, social compliance auditing is neither of these. Instead, it independently assesses an organization’s compliance with its social and ethical responsibilities, health and safety regulations, and labor laws.
These types of audits are conducted across multiple industries in more than 100 countries, potentially anywhere there are workers. They occur not only in sophisticated manufacturing environments such as toys, automobiles, electronics and consumer products, but also in highly regulated environments like commercial bakeries and other food production facilities, as well as in agriculture, fishing, textiles, apparel and footwear.
In its simplest form, a social compliance audit is an in-person audit of a work site or facility, where an auditor who has been specifically trained on areas such as labor rights, local laws, occupational health and safety (OHS), business ethics, and management systems verifies that the company is respecting the human rights of workers.
