Who
We Are and What We Do
SAAS
is structured and operates as an accreditation body. SAAS
manages and directs accreditation activities, including the
granting, maintaining, extending, reducing, suspending and
withdrawing of accreditation for applicable social standards
and verification codes, such as SA8000 and InterAction. The
primary activities for SAAS are:
- To accredit
and monitor organizations seeking to act as certifiers of
compliance with social standards, including the Social Accountability
8000 standard for ethical working conditions, the InterAction
PVO Standards, and other such verification standards;
- To offer accreditation
services to certification bodies (CBs);
- To determine
the qualifications of such organizations to perform full,
reliable, and impartial audits of employers against specified
social standards;
- To provide
confidence to all stakeholders in SAAS accreditation decisions
and in the certification decisions of its accredited CBs;
- To continually
improve the SAAS accreditation function activities and systems,
in compliance with ISO/IEC Guide 17011 and SAAS Procedure
201, “Accreditation of Certification Bodies of Social
Accountability Systems”;
- To be impartial
and fair to all applicant and accredited certification bodies.
SAAS staff are
responsible for day-to-day operations, the objectives of which
are:
- To
gain international recognition of the accreditation program
and its value to society;
- To
expeditiously resolve any complaints and address their root
causes;
- To
improve, each year, the reliability and quality of accredited
certifications;
- To
deliver all our services in a professional and timely manner
that furthers the mission of social standards.
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