Smeta Audit (Social Management Systems Audit) : SMETA Is The Acronym of

SMETA AUDIT
(Social Management Systems Audit)
1. SMETA is the acronym of “SEDEX Members Ethical Trade Audit”. SEDEX is

the acronym of “Supplier Ethical Data Exchange”, and it is a web-based system
designed to help organizations manage data on labour practices in their supply chain.
SEDEX was founded in 2001 by a group of UK retailers to drive convergence in social
audit standards and monitoring practices. The aims of SEDEX are to ease the auditing
burden on suppliers through the sharing of reports and to drive improvements in supply
chain standards. SMETA was developed by the SEDEX Associate Auditor Group
(AAG) - a SEDEX working group made up of commercial auditing companies, brands
and retailers, supplying companies as well as NGOs who are all significantly involved
in ethical trade auditing. The purpose of the AAG is to drive convergence in ethical
trade/social auditing, based on and helping to shape best practice.
➢ SMETA is one of the most widely used ethical audit formats in the world.
It’s an audit methodology, providing a compilation of best practice ethical
audit techniques. It is designed to help auditors conduct high quality
audits that encompass all aspects of responsible business practice,
covering SEDEX’s four pillars of Labour, Health and Safety,
Environment and Business Ethics.
➢ SMETA is designed for suppliers to share one audit with multiple
customers, meeting multiple customer requirements and reducing
duplication in ethical auditing. SMETA has three elements:
• A common Best Practice Guidance on conducting ethical

trade audits
• A common Audit Report format
• A common Corrective Action Plan format.
➢ Each SMETA audit carries a unique reference code to ensure the

SMETA audit is appropriately validated.
➢ It can be used in a regular site audit or in the SEDEX Offline Audit Tool.
SMETA is available in English, Spanish and Chinese.
➢ Audits in the SMETA format focus as much on labour conditions and
occupational safety as on environmental standards and ethical business
practices
➢ It is based on ETI (Ethical Trading initiative) Base code methodology. In
addition to the principles in the ETI Base Code, SMETA also review
performance against the right to work of migrant workers, management
systems and implementation, sub-contracting and home working and
environmental issues.
➢ There are three types of audit that are accepted by SEDEX; First Party
Audit, Second Party Audit and Third-Party Audit. Further there are three
practises of audit which are; Announced Audit (audit date is agreed
with or disclosed to the audited site), Semi Announced Audit (audit
date is agreed within a time “window”) and Unannounced Audit (no
prior notice is given).
➢ The sequences of SMETA audit comprises of,
•
Full Initial Audit
•
Periodic Audit
•
Follow-up Audit
o Full- Follow Up Audit
o Partial Follow-up Audit
• Desktop Follow-up Audit
➢ With effect from June 2017 a new version SMETA has been
implemented which was introduced in April 2017 as SMETA 6.0.
2. SMETA audit is required or can be proposed by any organization or entity that
is having been in to any types of business. This helps the Organization to show their
customers and partners. that how they are committed to the principles of ethically and
socially responsible business. This audit practise helps to Mitigate risks in the fields of
social responsibility and sustainability.
3. Only Auditors with SEDEX Affiliate Auditor Account can conduct SMETA audit
and access additional benefits. Affiliate Audit Company (AAC) account holder can
access the functionalities within the SEDEX Advance system, allowing their auditors
to manage data from multiple locations in one account. Auditors who wish to conduct
this Audit required to register with the SEDEX database, either through simple
membership as a freelance auditor or by becoming a full member of the SEDEX Audit
Company Group.
➢ Once an auditor is completed ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OSHAS 18001
or 45001, can do a conversion course to become SMETA Auditor. The
training is certificated by CQI/IRCA.
➢ Auditor or Auditing company affiliation criteria:
▪ Fill out and submit an Affiliate Audit Company application
form, together with supporting.
▪ documents and certificates, including business licence,
financial report, quality.
▪ management system files and auditors’ training
programme files.
▪ Demonstrate an active process for ensuring integrity in the
audit process, such as applying a Code of Integrity and
Professional Conduct’ or equivalent.
▪ Demonstrate commitment to best practice in social
auditing in the company mission statement.
▪
Confirm that social auditing is a minimum of 5% of the total
business turnover.
▪ Complete a minimum of 100 social compliance audits (the
acceptable scope or type of social compliance audit scope
defined by SEDEX) per year.
▪ Have a minimum of two separate offices in two or more
countries.
▪ Provide two references who are SEDEX Buyer (A) or
Buyer/Supplier (AB) members, who can confirm the audit
company’s capability.
▪ Commit to participate and pass SMETA foundation training
and other relevant SMETA auditor training courses.
▪ Pay the annual subscription fee, calculated on company
turnover.
▪ Commit to participate in the SMETA audit quality monitor
and assessment programme.
▪ Be able to arrange shadow audits for SEDEX staff
members if required.
➢ The SEDEX database registers its members in the following categories:
Buyer (A) Members:
For companies managing their own suppliers on the SEDEX database,
such as retailers at the end of a supply chain.
Supplier (B) Members:
For companies required to publish their SEDEX reports to the database,
such as producers at the beginning of a supply chain.
Buyer/Supplier (AB) Member:
For companies that manage reporting from their own suppliers but also
provide their own reports to buyers, such as trading or processing firms
in the middle of a supply chain
Group turnover Annual Fee
>£250 million* £7,200

£10-250 million* £2,940
£5-10 million* £720
<£5 million* £360
NB: Most of the Market players like BV, TUV, UL are the members of SEDEX.
Currently, the following audit companies are users of SEDEX:
1. ABS Quality Evaluations Inc.
2. Accordia
3. ACTE International
4. AJA Bangladesh
5. ALGI
6. API Audit Limited
7. AUS-MEAT
8. B2bsustainable
9. Benchmarks Ltd
10. BSI Group
11. Bureau Veritas
12. Centre Testing International Corporation
13. Control Union Certifications
14. CSR Solutions
15. DNV GL
16. DQS-UL CFS
17. Ecocert IMOswiss AG
18. Elevate
19. EUROCERT SA
20. Extensive Standard Technical Services Co. Ltd.
21. FLO-Cert
22. Globalgroup Certification Limited
23. Global Sustainable Certification Services ltd
24. Hong Kong Q.C. Center
25. IBL Certification
26. Insite Compliance
27. International Compliance Group
28. Intertek
29. IQC
30. IQNet
31. Leverage Limited
32. LRQA
33. LSQA
34. MPS-ECAS
35. NSF Certification
36. Partner Africa (formerly Africa Now)
37. Primus Auditing Ops
38. PwC Australia
39. QIMA Limited
40. Q-Inspect
41. QMSCERT
42. QUALSPEC OVERSEAS LTD
43. Reassurance Network
44. RINA
45. SGS
46. SIPAS CR – Peru
47. SMT Global
48. TUV AUSTRIA TURK
49. TUV Nord Cert
50. TÜV Rheinland
51. TÜV SÜD
52. UL – Responsible Sourcing Inc.
53. URS Verification
54. Verisio
55. Verner Wheelock (incorporating KSSA)
56. Wieta

Smeta Audit (Social Management Systems Audit) : SMETA Is The Acronym of

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Smeta Audit (Social Management Systems Audit) : SMETA Is The Acronym of

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Smeta Audit (Social Management Systems Audit) : SMETA Is The Acronym of

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

SMETA AUDIT

(Social Management Systems Audit)

1. SMETA is the acronym of “SEDEX Members Ethical Trade Audit”. SEDEX is

• A common Best Practice Guidance on conducting ethical

➢ Each SMETA audit carries a unique reference code to ensure the

Group turnover Annual Fee

>£250 million* £7,200

You might also like