Shen Aiqin, a deputy at China's National People's Congress and the board chairman of Wensli Group Company in Zhejiang province, appealed to delegates to formulate a national criterion for corporate social responsibility in China.
Corporate social responsibility has become a key topic for the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference this year. Shen Aiqin says that many problems in China are related to corporate behavior such as tax dodging, environmental destruction, loan defaults and food safety accidents. One of the key elements for these problems is the lack of a unified criterion for corporations to fulfill their social responsibility.
As an example, Shen presented SA8000, a global system for CSR established by the Social Accountability International, to the delegates at the assembly. SA8000 is an international standard for improving working conditions. Based on the principles of thirteen international human rights conventions, it is a tool to help apply these norms to practical work-life situations. Sufficiently specific to be used to audit companies and contractors alike in multiple industries and countries, SA8000 was one of the first auditable social standards and creates a process that is neither a government project, nor dominated by any single interest group.
According to SAI, to certify conformance with SA8000, every facility seeking certification must be audited. Thus auditors will visit factories and assess corporate practice on a wide range of issues and evaluate the state of a company's management systems, necessary to ensure ongoing acceptable practices. Once an organization has implemented any necessary improvements, it can earn a certificate attesting to its compliance with SA8000. This certification provides a public report of good practice to consumers, buyers, and other companies and is intended to be a significant milestone in improving workplace conditions.
Shen suggests that some common principles like environmental protection, economic sustainability and benefits for employees need to be taken into consideration before the establishment of a Chinese CSR criterion, and the government should also issue relevant policies to support companies that carry out CSR.
