What is BSCI? BSCI Review, Features

BSCI is the full name of Business Social Compliance Initiative in English and Business Social Standard Certification in Chinese. The purpose of BSCI certification is to enable the business community to accept and comply with global social responsibility audits, to use a unified and universal procedure and constantly improving policies to supervise, urge and develop corporate social responsibility performance, and to actively promote suppliers to accept BSCI factory audits to improve human rights.

About BSCI

BSCI is a program initiated by the Foreign Trade Association (FTA) to implement a common monitoring system for social standards for retailers, industry and importers and to improve the social responsibility of suppliers in their countries. The members of the BSCI Initiative Business Social Responsibility Organization include brand companies, retailers and traders, most of which are engaged in textiles or products containing textiles.

Certification Standards

1. Obey the law.

2. Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.

3. Discrimination is prohibited.

4. It is prohibited to employ child labor.

5. Forced labor is prohibited.

6. Workplace safety.

7. Compensation.

8. Working hours.

9. Environmental and safety issues.

10. Management system.

Application Process

Only those who have passed the SAI qualification level and the audit company selected by BSCI can conduct BSCI factory audit. And the BSCI certified audit company selected by FTA must exist in the most important supplier areas and have sufficient agencies to implement audits and supervision. Written contracts are also necessary means.

Here is the application process:

1. Registration

After a factory completes registration in the BSCI system, it can obtain a unique DBID number.

· The end customer is a BSCI member: The end customer assists the factory in registration.

The final customer is not a BSCI member: You can contact a professional auditing agency to assist the factory in registration.

2. RSP authorization

The final customer or the assisting auditing organization authorizes the factory in the BSCI system and classifies the factory into its own supplier group. After completing the RSP authorization, the BSCI official website will email the factory the username and password required for the factory to log in to the system.

3. Confirmation

After confirming the auditing agency to audit the factory, the customer makes a confirmation operation in the BSCI system. Only the auditing agency authorized by the customer can conduct the audit.

4. Payment

After the BSCI factory audit application is completed, payment is made to the audit agency and we wait for them to come to the factory for an on-site audit.

The information that must be provided on the day of the BSCI factory audit is as follows: facility floor plan, labor contract, employee handbook, collective labor agreement, list of chemicals and solvents used in the factory, legal and compliant business-related certificates, inspection reports and approvals from government health and fire departments, daily personnel logs, daily equipment and accident logs and handling procedures, factory floor plan including fire evacuation, attendance and salary records for the past year, all relevant financial receipts, environmental safety drill records, etc.

Features

1. Establish international credibility and enhance corporate image.

2. Greater compliance with local regulatory requirements.

3. One certification can handle different customers, reducing the second-party audits of suppliers by foreign customers and saving costs.

4. It helps consumers build positive emotions towards the product.

5. Consolidate cooperation with buyers and expand new markets.

Certification Level

- Grade A: Factory compliance rate is between 86% and 100% (excellent).

- Grade B: Factory compliance rate is between 71% and 85% (good).

- Grade C: Factory compliance rate is between 51% and 70% (acceptable).

-D grade: Factory compliance rate is between 30% and 50% (inadequate).

-E grade: factory compliance rate is between 0% and 29% (not accepted).

Certification Advantages

1. The certification is internationally accepted, thus reducing the additional costs incurred by different customers requiring different certifications.

2. It can basically meet the local laws and regulations of customers and has great international credibility.

3. It can increase customers’ trust, which is conducive to consolidating existing markets and expanding new markets.

4. It is particularly easy to open up the European market because many European brands and retailers recognize BSCI certification.

5. It can enhance the factory’s brand image and improve the factory’s industry status among its competitors.

6. It can significantly improve and help the factory's own management and system levels, and can obtain higher returns by improving productivity.

7. Enhance employees’ sense of belonging, improve the relationship between the factory and employees, and minimize potential business risks such as work-related injuries and deaths, legal proceedings, or loss of orders. This is also a powerful tool for factories to reduce costs.

8. Lay the foundation for the long-term development of the factory. After all, only professional development can last.

Difficulties in Application

1. High starting point. Most Chinese factories are still implementing the COC factory inspection standards of their customers, and there is still a long way to go to reach the SA8000 system. The BSCI factory inspection has an 86-page instruction manual, and my country has not even fully implemented the ISO9000 standard, so there are relatively few factories that want to apply for BSCI factory inspections.

2. Some of BSCI's requirements are not in line with my country's national conditions. For example, freedom of association is illegal in my country, and working hours far exceed the requirements of European and American factories. Chinese factories cannot reduce working hours because it will cause a large number of workers to resign.

3. BSCI has not yet unified its actual implementation standards. It is difficult to meet the requirements of specific auditing agencies in specific implementation. A project that one auditing agency considers to be a minor problem may be directly scored as zero by another auditing agency.

4. BSCI auditing agencies often make things difficult for small factories, using strictness towards certain factories to demonstrate their own strict implementation, thus circumventing the official supervision and auditing mechanism of BSCI.