Social Accountability Accreditation Services (SAAS)Since July 2018 the Brazilian Textile Retail Association (ABVTEX), has partnered with SAAS to bring international oversight credibility to the ABVTEX Audits Program. This program advances social and labor standards for the fashion textile and apparel sector in Brazil by encouraging sustainable development in the value chain and supporting supply chain monitoring and certification.
The ABVTEX Audits Program disseminates good practices and fights against modern slavery, child labor, and other human and labor rights violations. The Audits Program helps strengthen relationships between different parties in the supply chain by supporting and assessing sustainable supply chain-management practices, facilitating better risk management, productivity improvements, and reduced costs.
ABVTEX Audits Program certification covers practices, commitments and management aspects related to the following topics:
- Child Labor
- Forced or Analogous to Slave Labor
- Irregular Foreign Work
- Freedom of Association
- Discrimination
- Abuse and Harassment
- Health and Safety of Work
- Monitoring and Documentation
- Compensation
- Hours Worked
- Benefits
- Monitoring of Production Chain
- Environmental Management
About ABVTEX
Founded in 1999, the Brazilian Textile Retail Association (ABVTEX) brings together national and international fashion retail chains in the apparel, footwear, handbag, accessories, and home textile industries. ABVTEX’s mission is to promote sustainable fashion and make it more accessible by developing a productive, fair, responsible, innovative, competitive, and transparent supply chain. Since 2010, the ABVTEX Program has been committed to fighting modern slave labor, child labor, and other labor violations.
What is the ABVTEX Audits Program?
ABVTEX promotes and manages the ABVTEX Audits Program, which evaluates and addresses issues related to working conditions in the retail supply chain through the certification of suppliers and their subcontractors. This initiative, arising from the concern of retailers and consumers, created a new governance environment in the fashion value chain. It seeks to improve labor relations and ensure better safety conditions for workers through independent auditing of suppliers and subcontractors. This sector-wide initiative has the potential to create positive change across an entire industry, rather than one company at a time.
Learn more about the ABVTEX Audits Program.
SAAS’s Role
SAAS provides oversight, technical support, and qualitative evaluation for the ABVTEX Audits Program. This includes conducting regular shadow audits, office audits, and other oversight activities to assess auditing competence in the system.
Partners
