How does a standard-setter know when a stakeholder feels that their position or point of view has not been adequately taken into account? How does that standard ensure mechanisms that allow for recourse and consideration of that position? They do so through a clear Complaints and Appeals Process and it is one of the thirteen Credibility Principles that ISEAL promotes for sustainability standards.
Since 2004, ISEAL has been defining good practice for sustainability standards, distinguishing and promoting credible standards, and ensuring that people understand the difference. At the heart of this is a set of core Principles that define credible standards.
The Credibility Principles bring together concepts and actions that define top-notch standards. They represent the characteristics of today’s highest quality voluntary standards, such as those that have achieved full ISEAL membership. ISEAL provides guidance to help our members apply the Principles through the ISEAL Codes of Good Practice (including a Standard-Setting Code, an Impacts Code, and a forthcoming Assurance Code) that ISEAL full members commit to.
Complaints and appeals processes must apply both to standard-setting and to verification (assessments and decisions). They provide necessary checks and balances that the stakeholder engagement or verification processes are working. Stakeholders, including applicants for certification, have greater confidence in the objectivity of the system if they know they have an opportunity to question decisions that they feel don’t adequately take their views into account.
A complaints process requires that there is a consistent and independent mechanism for considering complaints, with the results provided at least to the complainant and the entity against which the complaint was lodged. For standard-setting, a complaints process usually focuses on procedural complaints. For verification and certification however, this applies to the process by which a certification decision is arrived at or to the decision itself. An appeals process is usually a second line of recourse where a decision on a complaint is appealed. In the case of certification decisions, the appeal may also be the first line of recourse. This means that when sufficient evidence is uncovered to support the complaint, certifications will be revoked. It also means that when, after thorough investigation, sufficient information is not uncovered to support the complaint then the certification will be upheld.
For more information on the ISEAL Codes of Good Practice click here.
For the list of full ISEAL members that adhere to our Credibility Principles, click here.