Here we have collected answers to some of the common questions about the SA8000 Standard revision and feedback process. We will continue to update this page throughout the public comment period. If you have questions not answered on this page, please feel free to contact sa8000@sa-intl.org.
Table of Contents
- What is the SA8000 Standard?
- Why are we revising the Standard?
- What are the objectives of the revision? (added 10/15/2024)
- How was the draft developed? (added 10/9/2024)
- What will happen to my feedback?
- What are the most significant changes from previous versions? (added 10/15/2024)
- How will this revision affect me as a user of the SA8000 Certification Program or other SAI products?
- When will changes take effect for SA8000 Certification and other SAI programs?
- Should I wait to take SA8000 Auditor Training courses?
- What do you mean by indicators? (added 10/9/2024)
- When will indicators and guidance be available for review?
- What do you mean by thresholds for certification? (added 10/9/2024)
- When will thresholds for certification by available? (added 10/9/2024)
- What other documents and resources will be updated based on SA8000:2025?
- In what ways does SA8000:2025 better align with other international management systems standards?
- How will scoring work within SA8000 Certification?
- How long will SA8000:2025 be in effect? (when will the next revision be?)
- Can I review the draft in another language? (added 10/15/2024)
- What languages will the Standard be published in? (added 10/15/2024)
- How can I ask further questions?
1. What is the SA8000 Standard?
Based on contemporary international and national human rights norms and laws, SA8000:2025 describes principles and criteria of decent work and effective management systems that reflect society’s expectations for responsible business. As a voluntary international standard, SA8000:2025 provides a verifiable and implementable framework for organizations to respect the rights of workers through effective governance, management, due diligence, and continual improvement. In doing so, it serves as a framework to guide policy makers, regulators, investors, civil society, unions, and other stakeholders in their efforts to promote and enable respect for workers’ rights by organizations. SA8000:2025 incorporates and defines key elements of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, ILO Conventions, UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, and OECD Guidelines for Due Diligence, integrating universally applicable management system principles.
SA8000:2025 is universally applicable to every type of organization, regardless of size, location, industry, or maturity. It applies to an organization’s potential and actual impacts on decent work through its actions, operations, and business relationships.
2. Why are we revising the Standard?
Part of SAI’s mandate as the SA8000 Standard owner is to update the Standard regularly to reflect shifts in the landscape of global trade and the world of work, and to address new risks and expectations.
Since the last update was published in 2014, there have been significant advancements in regulatory regimes and internationally accepted frameworks for social performance, in particular the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, OECD Guidelines for Due Diligence by Multinational Enterprises, EU CSRDDD, and similar legislation around the world. There have also been significant changes in the ways that people seek, obtain, and perform work.
With this revision, SAI aims to increase alignment and harmony with these other leading frameworks, increase clarity and usability of the Standard, and again set the bar for decent work.
3. What are the objectives of the revision?
Like previous versions, SA8000:2025 provides a voluntary and implementable standard for third-party verification of decent work principles and criteria at the organization level. This revision broadens the standard’s scope in multiple ways and introduces a progressive evaluation structure.
- Global Vision: While all previous versions have been code-agnostic and applicable to most organizations, the new standard is even broader—establishing a global vision to help guide public, civil society, and private sector actors of all types, and at all levels of global value chains, in their efforts to promote, protect, and advocate for workers’ rights.
- Positive Framing and Comprehensive Approach: SA8000:2025 describes a positive vision for the future of decent work, which needs to be upheld by governments and business. Where previous versions of this Standard were framed around non-conformance, the 2024 revision emphasizes performance—what organizations should be doing to fulfill their duty to respect workers’ rights. SA8000:2025 is designed first and foremost as a tool to guide organizations to develop and implement holistic management systems based on principles of due diligence and good governance. Auditing and certification are two tools, among many others, that can be used with this standard to support and attest to their effectiveness in practice.
- Progressive Scoring: This revision enables a scoring methodology for evaluation, which will allow organizations at any level to understand, given their specific context and responsibility, their current performance and maturity and how they can improve. SAI will offer a range of products for organizations at different levels of decent work performance and system maturity. This will allow organizations to participate in SAI capacity building programs and begin working toward the principles and requirements of the standard, irrespective of maturity or performance level.
- Refining and Clarifying Management Systems: SA8000 has always been a management system standard. This was further codified in the 2014 revision, which introduced Social Fingerprint for SA8000. In this revision, we have refined the Social Fingerprint framework to add more clarity and structure around how organizations can demonstrate good management system practices, to ensure the requirements are sufficiently flexible and relevant to organizations of all types, and to better align with other international management system standards.
- Clarifying Organizational Responsibility: Where previous versions of the Standard focused on an organization’s own operations and supply chain as separate processes, SA8000:2025 clarifies the organization’s responsibility to take an integrated approach to proactively prevent, mitigate, and remediate risks and impacts related to decent work that they cause, contribute to, or are directly linked to through their business relationships (aligned with the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights).
- Addressing Emerging Challenges and Opportunities: As with previous revisions, this revision updates the Standard in response to emerging risks, challenges, and opportunities.
4. How was the draft developed?
SAI has a cross-functional and multi-level internal Standard Technical Committee, representing many years of experience developing and implementing social standards and working in the field of social accountability. The Committee has led internal drafting of SA8000:2025, which has included an extensive review of other social standards and legislation, reports, guidance, and other similar resources.
In July-October 2023, SAI held 13 workshops across 10 countries to gather feedback on our initial draft materials and input to inform future stages of the drafting process. In addition, the team has consulted with external experts on specific topic areas. The Committee consolidated and reviewed all feedback received during these workshops and engagements.
We are now pleased to share the draft for public comment. In addition to open commenting, we will engage directly with experts and key stakeholders to receive their feedback on key questions.
See Question #8 for next steps.
5. What will happen to my feedback?
All feedback received will be reviewed in collaboration with third-party experts and the SAI Standard Technical Committee will make relevant changes to the Standard. Decisions will be made by consensus.
SAI will publish a summary of feedback received following the public comment period, but will not publish individual comments or personal details. Please be aware we are soliciting feedback from many stakeholders. As a multi-stakeholder organization, we are committed to balancing these various interests and needs, while prioritizing the rights and wellbeing of workers. All comments will be considered fairly, but not all comments will result in changes to the draft Standard.
6. What are the most significant changes from previous versions?
The fundamental approach and expectations of SA8000 have remained largely consistent since its first publication in 1997. SA8000:2025 continues to carry forward these same values, but we hope it does so in a clearer and more accessible way. The most significant changes from previous versions include:
- New Management System Structure: SA8000:2014 introduced the Social Fingerprint management system structure. SA8000:2025 maintains the same elements, but has reorganized them to clearly demonstrate the steps that organizations should take in developing and implementing their system (see table below). It also makes explicit many expectations that were previously only implied or addressed through supplementary information (such as the SAI Audit Tool and SAI auditor training programs).
- Clarification of organization’s scope of responsibility: Previous versions of the Standard focused on an organization’s responsibility to its own personnel, with separate requirements for supply chain due diligence. SA8000:2025 makes explicit that the scope of an organization’s management system must encompass all workers (not just those employed by the organization) on which it has an impact, direct or indirect, and the varying degrees of an organization’s responsibility for labor performance across its business relationships.
- Outcomes-based criteria: SA8000:2014 was often prescriptive about the processes an organization should develop and implement—focusing on how to do these things rather than on the ultimate outcomes the processes should produce. This unintentionally limited the Standard’s applicability in certain contexts. SA8000:2025 avoids, to the extent possible, prescribing how organizations must meet criteria, instead describing the outcomes that must be achieved. For example, SA8000:2014 stated that the organization should not use labour-only contracting and other indirect employment schemes to avoid legal and regulatory obligations that apply to employees (Criterion 8.5). SA8000:2024 addresses these types of employment schemes by defining the characteristics of their appropriate use (i.e., measured and evidence-based; aligned with the Standard; supportive of workers’ right to a decent standard of living; safe and healthy; and transparent, predictable, and convenient to personnel – Criterion D4.14).
- Titles and Organization of Decent Work Elements: Some of the Decent Work categories have been retitled to reflect the positive outcome organizations should be seeking to achieve, rather than the negative situations they should seek to avoid. We have also combined some categories (see table below).
| 2014 | 2025 |
|---|---|
| 1. Child Labour | D1: Protection of Children and Young Workers |
| 2. Forced or Compulsory Labour | D3: Free and Fair Recruitment, Employment, and Termination |
| 3. Health and Safety | D6: Health and Safety |
| 4. Freedom of Association & Right to Collective Bargaining | D2: Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining |
| 5. Discrimination | D5: Freedom from Discrimination |
| 6. Disciplinary Practices | D3: Free and Fair Recruitment, Employment, and Termination |
| 7. Working Hours | D4: Decent Wages and Hours |
| 8. Remuneration | D4: Decent Wages and Hours |
| D7: Privacy |
7. How will this revision affect me as a user of the SA8000 Certification Program or other SAI products?
SA8000-Certified Organizations:
Currently certified organizations should read and begin familiarizing themselves with SA8000:2025 upon its publication. After SA8000:2025 is finalized and published, SAI will begin work to define certification thresholds and develop supporting materials (see Question #8). We do not expect this revision to significantly change the final labor performance expectations for certification—if you are currently meeting the labor performance criteria in the Standard, we expect that you will have already met most if not all thresholds for certification to SA8000:2025 once those thresholds are available. The one exception is on the topic of Privacy, which has been newly introduced in SA8000:2025.
The most significant changes to the Standard are in the structure of the Management System sections. While the fundamental expectations have not changed, many expectations that were previously implicit have been made explicit. Most currently certified organizations will need to conduct a full review of their management systems and make necessary amendments to to align with SA8000:2025 requirements.
SAI will offer (and may require) trainings for certified organizations on all aspects of the new Standard, once the certification thresholds and supporting materials (e.g., assessment methodology, audit protocols, guidance, etc.) have been developed (see Question #8).
SA8000 CBs and Auditors:
After SA8000:2025 is finalized and published, SAI will begin work to define certification thresholds and develop supporting materials (see Question #8). SAAS-accredited CB staff and auditors will need to complete SA8000:2025 training once the certification thresholds and supporting materials (e.g., assessment methodology, audit protocols, guidance, etc.) are developed. This revision training will also be available to anyone who has taken an SA8000 Basic or Advanced training. The format, length, and exact requirements of this training will be determined in 2025.
SA8000:2025 will require a new approach to auditing—introducing a scoring methodology using a context-based approach. We believe these changes will provide auditors with much greater ability and flexibility to use their judgment when assessing complex issues, rather than limiting decisions to simple yes/no (conforming/nonconforming) options. We look forward to providing much more information about this approach next year.
Buyers:
Once SA8000:2025 is published, buyers who benchmark against SA8000 can immediately begin comparing requirements to their own codes. This will be further supported by the development of guidance and other supporting materials later in 2025 (see Question #8).
Social Fingerprint users:
While SA8000:2025 won’t change the core concepts or expectations of Social Fingerprint, the Social Fingerprint categories will be updated. We will map existing Social Fingerprint scores and implementation plans to align with the updated categories in SA8000:2025.
Consultants:
In order to support their clients’ transition to SA8000:2025, we encourage consultants to read and familiarize themselves with the standard and all related content as soon as it becomes available. SAI will provide training opportunities for SA8000 consultants once the certification thresholds and supporting materials (e.g., assessment methodology, audit protocols, guidance, etc.) are developed (see Question #8). Consultants that have already been trained as part of SAI’s Consultant Registry program will have the opportunity for re-training on the new Standard.
Organizations interested in pursuing SA8000 Certification:
Organizations interested in pursuing SA8000 Certification may still be certified to SA8000:2014 throughout 2025. More information about the final dates for SA8000:2014 certification activities and validity will be communicated well in advance to all affected parties. Subsequently, recently certified organizations will be required to meet the same SA8000:2025 certification criteria and deadlines as all other certified organizations (See Question #8).
8. When will changes take effect for SA8000 Certification and other SAI programs?
SA8000 Certification:
- January 2025 – Publication of SA8000:2025.
- January-December 2025 – Development, consultation, and piloting of SA8000 Certification thresholds, assessment methodology, and supporting materials (e.g., guidance, audit procedures, trainings, etc.).
- End of 2025 – Expected publication of SA8000 Certification thresholds (see Question #16), assessment methodology, and supporting materials. At which point, audits against the new standard can begin and organizations will have up to two years to transition to the new standard.
- January-December 2026 – Extensive training opportunities for auditors, certified organizations, and consultants.
Social Fingerprint:
We will make updates to Social Fingerprint thresholds and categories in early 2025. We will communicate about these timelines and expectations with relevant stakeholders as decisions are made.
Others:
SAI will make decisions about incorporating SA8000:2025 into other programs in 2025. We will communicate about these timelines and expectations with relevant stakeholders as decisions are made.
9. Should I wait to take SA8000 Auditor Training courses?
Those seeking SA8000 Auditor training should proceed with the current version, which will continue to address all pertinent topics and provide helpful insight into the future of SA8000. Auditor Training participants who successfully complete the current SA8000 Basic Training course in 2023 or later will be offered the opportunity to attend the revision training course(s) for free when available.
10. What do you mean by indicators?
Process and performance indicators are an important piece of the SA8000:2025 Standard structure. They provide practical examples to help users understand how to implement or assess against the standard’s criteria.
Process Indicators: Examples of processes, documents, policies, procedures, and metrics that may be used to assess the effectiveness of an organization’s management system processes related to a given criterion. Implementers may use these indicators to understand what good processes look like in practice.
Performance Indicators: Examples of metrics and other evidence that may be used to assess the degree to which performance criteria are being satisfied in an organization. Implementers may use these indicators to understand what good performance looks like in practice.
Indicators are not requirements. Any given indicator may or may not be relevant to a given organizational context or SAI program. For example, a small family farm may not need to have a cross-functional team conducting stakeholder engagement (sample process indicator for criterion M4.2). However, the involvement of a cross-functional team would be relevant to how well a corporate entity engages stakeholders in their management system.
We’ve provided some non-exhaustive examples for your reference below:
| Criteria | Sample Process Indicators | Sample Performance Indicators | Program Application |
|---|---|---|---|
| M4.2 – The organization shall periodically identify and consult with credible representatives of relevant stakeholders, including workers, to understand the needs and expectations of those they represent. | Records and outcomes from consultations with stakeholders. Identification and evaluation of local and international stakeholders, including: Relevance to context Interest in engagement and feedback Expertise in issue areas Existing communications detailing stakeholder expectations Team members involved in stakeholder engagement (cross functional team vs. one person) Statements from consulted stakeholders on their satisfaction with the engagement Gap analysis of stakeholder engagement activities (check for relevant orgs not consulted) | N/A | Criterion M4.2 is an expectation of all organizations participating in SAI products or programs. It demonstrates how both assessment and implementation must be considered through the lens of the organization’s context. Who the organization consults with, how robust those consultations are, how often those consultations occur, and other aspects of their stakeholder engagement depend on the type of organization, where they are, their risks and impacts, and other contextual factors. |
| D4.4 – The organization shall respect the rights of personnel to reasonable hours by working toward or achieving personnel work schedules which, at minimum, limit: Regular hours to 48 hours per week; Overtime hours to 12 hours per week; Overtime to non-regular scenarios. | Organizational policies that cover: Overtime Hours Wages and Compensation Work schedule analysis and reporting Work schedule improvement planning, including: Reviewing and adjusting staffing requirements as needed Piece-rate requirements Productivity planning, training, and tools Production capacity calculations | % of personnel working under 48 hours a week # of overtime instances Average hours worked Average overtime hours worked # of times any personnel worked more than 12 overtime hours in a week Personnel statements on whether overtime is a regular occurrence | Criterion D4.4 is both qualitative and quantitative in nature. It gives a minimum baseline to reach toward, while recognizing that not every organization participating in every program can meet these expectations. E.g., Compliance to an SA8000 Certification program may require that there is both an hours analysis and improvement planning document and that these minimums are achieved within a given timeline. E.g., Application in a grant project may require that participants create a policy and set an objective to achieve these minimums, but may have no requirement that they are achieved in a specific amount of time. |
Indicators are not included for review, as they are not a static piece of the Standard. They will be updated and republished periodically between standard revision cycles. SAI will accept feedback and input on indicators on an ongoing basis and incorporate this in periodic updates. The first set of indicators will be published alongside the Standard in January 2025.
11. When will indicators and guidance be available for review?
SAI plans to publish an initial set of indicators concurrently with the SA8000:2025 Standard in early 2025. Subsequently, indicators will be updated and republished periodically, reflecting how the Standard is used in practice and developments in the field of social accountability. We invite your input on effective indicators during the public comment period and beyond.
SA8000:2025 guidance will be developed throughout 2025. We anticipate that preliminary guidance materials will be published beginning in late 2025. Subsequently, Guidance materials will also be periodically augmented and updated.
12. What do you mean by thresholds for certification?
SA8000 is the foundational document that underpins all of SAI’s programs, including but not limited to the SA8000 Certification program. As such, SA8000:2025 has been drafted to represent an aspirational vision of decent work. This does not necessarily always correspond with realistic expectations we have for organizations operating in the current economic environment.
As such, SAI will undertake a separate process to set the thresholds for SA8000 Certification following the publication of SA8000:2025. In this process we will 1) review all the Standard criteria and determine what score would be considered acceptable, and 2) determine what combination of criteria-level scores will be required for certification.
Some examples of how this may work, assuming a scoring scale of 1-5 (these are illustrative examples only and do not indicate SAI policy):
- E.g., The organization must achieve at least a score of 4 for criterion D1.2 (minimum age requirements for workers) and they are not eligible for certification if that score is not achieved.
- E.g., The organization must achieve at least an average score of 3 in D3 (Free and Fair Recruitment, Employment and Termination), but must achieve this by scoring at least a 4 in specific criteria and may not have any scores of 1.
13. When will thresholds for certification be available?
Before determining the thresholds for certification, SAI needs to finalize the scoring framework. We expect to complete this in the first quarter of 2025. Then, we will engage in a consultative process to set and pilot test the certification thresholds. We tentatively expect to publish the certification thresholds by the end of 2025. See Question #8 for more on the timeline.
14. What other documents and resources will be updated based on SA8000:2025?
SA8000:2025 significantly changes the structure of the Standard and will bring significant change to how performance against the Standard is assessed. Throughout 2025, SAI will align all existing, supporting materials to SA8000:2025. Users can expect changes to materials including, but not limited to:
- SA8000 Guidance
- Procedures 200, 201 and other SAAS documents
- Performance Indicator Annex (will be replaced by Indicators section of Standard – see Question #15)
- Management Systems Maturity Declaration (will be subsumed into Standard)
- SAI Database
- SA8000 Auditor Training
- Social Fingerprint assessment, improvement plans, and training
- Social Accountability Consultant Training course
15. In what ways does SA8000:2025 better align with other international management systems standards?
While all the same elements have been included in the intent of SA8000 for many years, we believe SA8000:2025 significantly improves the clarity and structure of the management system section. In developing SA8000:2025, SAI aimed to align with aspects of other leading management systems standards, particularly those developed in accordance with ISO/IEC Annex SL framework (see cross-mapping table below).
| Annex SL | SA8000:2025 (Note: Some SA8000 criteria address more than one Annex SL requirement – many, but not all, of these instances are identified below.) |
|---|---|
| Sections 1-3 | N/A |
| 4. Context of the organization | |
| 4.1 Understanding the organization and its context. | M4; M1.4 |
| 4.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties | M1.5; M2.1-2.4; M3.1-3.2; M4.2 |
| 4.3 Determining the scope of the XXX management system | M1.2; M4 |
| 4.4 XXX management system | O2; M4.5; D1.7 (and all other D sections) |
| 5. Leadership | |
| 5.1 Leadership and commitment | O1; M1.1 |
| 5.2 Policy | M5.1 |
| 5.3 Roles, responsibilities and authorities | M1.2; M1.3; M1.5; M7.1 |
| 6. Planning | |
| 6.1 Actions to address risks and opportunities | M4.1-4.4; M6 |
| 6.2 XXX objectives and planning to achieve them | M5.2; M6.1-6.6 |
| 6.3 Planning of changes | M7.2 |
| 7. Support | |
| 7.1 Resources | M6.2; M7.1 |
| 7.2 Competence | M6.2; M7.1 |
| 7.3 Awareness | M7.4-M7.6 |
| 7.4 Communication | M7.5-M7.6; M8.1-8.2; M9.4-9.5 |
| 7.5 Documented information | M6.2; M8.4 |
| 8. Operation | |
| 8.1 Operational planning and control | M7.1-7.4; M7.7 |
| 9. Performance evaluation | |
| 9.1 Monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation | M9.1-9.3 |
| 9.2 Internal audit | M10.1 |
| 9.3 Management review | M10.1-10.2 |
| 10. Improvement | |
| 10.1 Continual improvement | M10.3 |
| 10.2 Nonconformity and corrective action | M10.3 |
16. How will scoring work within SA8000 Certification?
Rather than a simple ‘yes/no’ (conformity/nonconformity) assessment, SA8000:2025 assessments will result in scores for the implementing organization, showing their level of conformity and management system maturity. This methodology is presently under development and will be piloted in 2025. We will share more information about the scoring methodology as it is finalized. See the Guide for Reviewing SA8000:2025 document for more on scoring.
17. How long will SA8000:2025 be in effect? (when will the next revision be?)
One of the goals with this full Standard revision is to once again set the leading benchmark for decent work. We expect that SA8000:2025 will remain relevant for many years to come, and therefore do not expect another full revision within the next ten years. We will review and may choose to make smaller revisions as often as every five years. In between revisions, we will periodically add to and update indicators and guidance, sharing this information with stakeholders as we do so.
18. Can I review the draft in another language?
SAI is working to provide translations of the draft Standard for review in Spanish, Italian, and Mandarin. We will share these as soon as possible.
If you are more comfortable submitting comments in a language other than English, you are welcome to do so. We will use online tools to translate in most cases and may seek clarity from translators as necessary.
19. What languages will the Standard be published in?
Professional translations that accurately capture the nuance and implications of the Standard are critical for its effective implementation and assessment. To support this, SAI is planning a consultative translation process following the publication in English (January 2025). In the following months, SAI will convene workshops to develop professional translations of the Standard in key languages. To start, these will include at least: Spanish, Portuguese (with clarifications between Brazilian and European Portuguese), Mandarin, and Italian. We will continue this consultative process for additional languages as needed. Once developed, we will follow the same process for translating key accompanying materials (see Question #11) as needed.
Following publication of translated materials, SAI will continue to accept and will periodically review comments to make necessary clarifications in the translations.
20. How can I ask further questions?
Please feel free to contact sa8000@sa-intl.org with further questions or to share additional feedback on the draft Standard.
