Tag: iso26000

This week represents the 67th anniversary of the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights.

In Tampa, we attended a luncheon event recognizing the 30 articles (human rights) described within the Declaration.

The General Assembly,

Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

At Pro QC, we are particularly proud to help organizations ensure worker’s rights through on-site social audits. Standards and industry guidelines such as SA8000 and ISO 26000 use the Declaration as a basis for accountability within the supply chain.

Article 23 (Worker’s Rights)

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

We attended ASQ’s Joint Technical Communities Conference in Orlando, FL this week.  In addition to attending some really insightful and valuable sessions by impressive quality industry leaders, we enjoyed participating in the panel discussion related to SR and the Update of Risk in the New ISO Management Systems Standards.

Risk is highlighted in the recently issued ISO 9001:2015.  Identifying opportunities over threats is inherent. Preventative thinking is thoughtfully applied.

“One of the key changes in the 2015 revision of ISO 9001 is to establish a systematic approach to risk, rather than treating it as a single component of a quality management system.

In previous editions of ISO 9001, a clause on preventive action was separated from the whole. Now risk is considered and included throughout the standard.

By taking a risk-based approach, an organization becomes proactive rather than purely reactive, preventing or reducing undesired effects and promoting continual improvement. Preventive action is automatic when a management system is risk-based.”

Each year on April 22nd, the world celebrates Earth Day.

“Events worldwide are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It was first celebrated in 1970, and is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network and celebrated in more than 192 countries each year.” 

At Pro QC, we like Earth Day because it’s an opportunity to express our commitment to helping ensure sustainability and social responsibility within the supply chain.  Aside from reducing quality risks and cost, ensuring social responsibility improves quality of life and ultimately affects the quality of products being produced as well. 80% of CEOs recently surveyed agree that ensuring social responsibility contributes to long-term success.  Environmental leadership is considered compatible with good returns.

Standards including SA 8000, ISO 26000 and ISO 14000 are generally incorporated into SR audits. A social responsibility audit can be included in a general systems audit for an added level of assurance.

We continue to see an increase in requests for social responsibility audits and are pleased to see the growing commitment in this regard.  Aside from reducing quality risks and cost, ensuring social responsibility improves quality of life and ultimately affects the quality of products being produced as well.

Principles of social responsibility per the ISO 26000 guideline include:

• Accountability
• Transparency
• Ethical behaviour
• Respect for stakeholder interests
• Respect for the rule of law
• Respect for international norms
of behaviour
• Respect for human rights

“The SA 8000 standard is based on the UN Declaration of Human Rights, conventions of the ILO, UN and national law, and spans industry and corporate codes to create a common language to measure social performance.  It takes a management systems approach by setting out the structures and procedures that companies must adopt in order to ensure that compliance with the standard is continuously reviewed.”

The nine elements of the SA 8000 standard include: