The Executive Director of the Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors (APSCA) is pleased to announce during the Inaugural General Meeting, the following members were elected by their peers to the Executive Board.

“APSCA is officially up and running to fulfil its mission of enhancing the professionalism and credibility of the individuals and organizations performing independent social compliance audits. This marks a real turning point for this industry and to begin the journey of setting, maintaining, and raising standards for professionals engaged in providing the very challenging and very important service of social audits,” said Avedis Seferian, Chair, Executive Board.

​The three working groups also came together during this week, consulting with their extended members as progress continues on audit definition, auditor competencies and audit firm requirements.  Working Group 1 and 2 also held open sessions to commence the public feedback component of their work.  We will be updating the website with this information in the coming weeks. 

“We were pleased to host over 100 participants this week in New York – these face-to-face meetings saw the 3 working groups make great progress and we are energized by the level of engagement,” said Rona Starr, Executive Director.
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To receive up-to-date information regarding APSCA, our work in progress and a biographical profile of each of the Executive Board Members, visit our website www.theapsca.org, sign-up to receive our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn.  

APSCA Executive Board L-R Front Row: Avedis Seferian (Chair), Betty Hutchison (BV), Rona Starr (APSCA), Pierre Yves Dupont (SGS), Greg Gardner (Arche), Christophe Liebon (Intertek) Back Row: Frank Dorssers (TUV), Randy Rankin (Independent), Wesley Wilson (WalMart), Josh Warren (UL), Antonio Astone (DNV GL)

London, 29 September 2016

The interim Executive Board of the Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors (APSCA) is pleased to announce the acceptance of eight new member organizations, bringing APSCA’s membership to 17.  The new members are:  AsiaInspection Limited, AUS-MEAT Limited, Control Union, DNV GL – Business Assurance, DQS CFS GmbH, Insite Compliance LLC, International Compliance Group Inc., and SMT-Global (Global Strategy Management Technology Co. Limited).
 
These organizations have demonstrated the competencies required via an application process, 3rd party due diligence and an interview to ensure members are professional organizations which meet APSCA’s standards.
 
These organizations will play key roles in helping shape the ongoing work of enhancing the professionalism and credibility of individual auditors and organizations performing independent social compliance audits.
 
“This is an exciting time for APSCA as we continue moving forward with our mission and objectives.  I am looking forward to working closely with all of our member organizations,” said Rona Starr, Executive Director, APSCA.

London, September 1, 2015
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The Association for Professional Social Compliance Auditors (APSCA) was created today to ensure the professionalism, consistency and credibility of individual auditors and organizations performing independent social compliance audits, and to promote the use of independent social compliance audits, as a tool to advance workplace conditions for workers globally. The APSCA certification process will ensure auditors have consistent training, education, background checks, and demonstrated competencies that are standard requirements in comparable professional auditor associations.

Social compliance audits, often conducted by third party auditing firms, are the main tool used by multinational organizations to assess supply chain facilities’ and farms’ compliance with local and international expectations of labor conditions. A result of a year’s effort led by leading social compliance auditing firms, including Arche Advisors, Bureau Veritas, Intertek, SGS, TUV Rheinland, TUV Sud, and UL, APSCA comes as supply chains become increasingly global and while hundreds of thousands of social compliance audit reports are already in circulation.

“Today, working conditions around the world are increasingly scrutinized by consumers and media, and in which multinational organizations are expecting more transparency from their suppliers. However, social compliance audits performed to-date are inconsistent, conducted by too wide a range of provider,” said Roger Brockway of the International Federation of Inspection Agencies (IFIA), a major sponsor of APSCA.

“As challenges for workers around the world continue to evolve, and companies’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) needs continue to expand, it is more important than ever to bring consistency to the social compliance auditing industry. Companies and workers throughout the world rely on the oversight provided by social compliance audits, and APSCA endeavors to provide a leading level of assurance.” 

APSCA welcomes applicants to register for the APSCA certification starting January 1st, 2016.

APSCA will be primarily focusing on members from the social compliance auditing industry before it includes other types of auditors such as internal auditor staff from brand or retailer organizations.  Additionally, as the association expands,

APSCA is actively seeking an executive director to lead this initiative, and is also currently forming an executive and stakeholder board to be fully functional in the coming weeks.

For more information on how you can participate, contact director@theapsca.org