Supplier Audit

1、 ICS Introduction

ICS Factory Inspection is a member of the French Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD), which officially released the "Initiative Clause Sociale (ICS)" in the third quarter of 1998 based on the guidance of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on social responsibility management programs and the adoption of the concepts in the SA8000 standard. ICS member customers will conduct social responsibility factory inspections on their suppliers, covering aspects such as social responsibility, occupational health and safety, on-site fire protection, and factory procedure documents.

The ICS Code of Conduct is a set of standards required for ICS factory audits, and each of the ICS human audit guidelines is detailed to the point where several noteworthy issues arise. The following are eight aspects that can be classified as labor situation, personal safety situation, etc. The specific situation is as follows. The ICS Code of Conduct covers eight main aspects:

1. Child labor

2. Forced labor

3. Discrimination

4. Disciplinary measures, harassment, and abuse

5. Freedom of Association

6. Working hours and overtime

7. Salary and benefits

8. Health and Safety

2、 ICS members

ICS members include 45 multinational retailers (mainly in France), such as Carrefour, a large retailer commonly seen in China, and the industries involved include but are not limited to textile, retail, footwear, electronics and furniture

3、 ICS audit type

ICS members decide on the timing for initiating subsequent audits or re audits based on the time frame specified by ICS and the following instructions. ICS auditing is not authentication or labeling. The objective of ICS audit is to evaluate the social compliance status of the factory, report any observed non-compliance phenomena and best practices on specific dates.

ICS audits are divided into three categories:

Initial audit: refers to the audit conducted for the first time in a factory or an audit that is more than two years apart from the previous one. The duration of the initial audit depends on the size of the factory.

Follow up audit: refers to an audit conducted to monitor whether non compliant issues identified in previous assessments (initial audit, follow-up audit, or re audit) have been effectively resolved. Subsequent audits should be initiated within 12 months after the completion of the previous ICS initial or re audit. Regardless of the size of the evaluated facility, the duration of subsequent audits is 1 person working day.

Re audit: refers to an audit conducted to monitor whether non compliant issues identified in previous assessments (initial audit, subsequent audit, or re audit) have been effectively resolved. The re audit should be initiated within 24 months after the completion of the previous ICS initial audit or re audit. The duration of the re audit depends on the size of the factory.

4、 How many levels of ICS factory inspection results are there

ICS factory is also a human rights factory of Carrefour; According to the scoring system, the levels are divided into four categories: "ABCD".

A-level: valid for two years, with a score of 125 or above, which is difficult for most factories to achieve.

B-level: valid for two years, between 75-125 points, accepted by most customers.

C-level: One year validity period, between 25-74 points, accepted by some customers.

D level: Not accepted, with serious violations, between 0-24 points.