Audit

SIZA social site visits were implemented as part of SIZA’s between-audit monitoring policy to verify the producer’s approved Social Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) and to ensure practices remain in place between audit validity periods.

A total of 560 Social (Ethical) audits have been conducted for the period 1 January to 31 October 2020. This results in a median of 56 social audits per month. For the same period, three Environmental third-party standalone audits have taken place, and a further 13 Environmental audits are scheduled to take place in future.

The purpose of the closing meeting is to go through the findings, agree to them and to agree on a corrective action plan which sets out areas for improvement, actions, and timeframes.

Once the audit request has been received by the audit company, the audit scheduler must assign an audit team to the audit.

The rate for the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for each ordinary hour worked is R20.76, however, in terms of agri-workers, the wage payable is R18.68 per hour.

With the launch of MySIZA, SIZA members have been able to schedule Environmental Third-Party audits from the 1st of June 2020.

A total of ten (10) Social audit disputes were logged with SIZA from January to June 2020.

Four (4) critical findings were reported for the months of January 2020 to June 2020.

During 2019, 627 SIZA Ethical audits were conducted. Out of this total, 94% have been completed in full, and a further 6% are in the process of completing the required corrective actions.

Verifying hours using manual systems has become an increasing concern for auditors during SIZA audits. In many cases, auditees supply attendance registers that do not adequately indicate the actual time worked for a particular employee.