: SA8000, namely "social responsibility standard", is the English abbreviation of Social Accoutability 8000, and it is the first international standard of ethics in the world. Its purpose is to ensure that the products provided by suppliers meet the requirements of social responsibility standards. The SA8000 standard is applicable to companies of all sizes around the world. Its basis, like ISO9000 quality management system and ISO 14000 environmental management system, is an international standard that can be audited by third-party certification bodies.

The requirements of SA8000 standard include:

1, child labor;

2. Forced labor;

3. Health and safety;

4. Freedom to form trade unions and the right to collective bargaining;

5. Discrimination;

6. Disciplinary measures;

7. Working hours;

8. salary;

9. Management system.

The functions of SA8000 certification include:

1, reducing the second-party audit of suppliers by foreign customers and saving costs;

2. Meet the requirements of local laws and regulations to a greater extent;

3. Establish international reputation;

4. It is suitable for consumers to establish positive feelings about products;

5. Let partners build long-term confidence in this enterprise.

SA8000, or "social responsibility standard", is the English abbreviation of social responsibility 8000. This is the first international moral standard in the world based on the International Labour Organization Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights and Interests of the Child. Published in 1997 10. Its purpose is to ensure that the products provided by suppliers meet the requirements of social responsibility standards. The SA8000 standard is applicable to all parts of the world and any industry.

SA8000, like ISO9000 quality management system and ISO 14000 environmental management system, is a set of international standards that can be audited by third-party certification bodies. It focuses on people, not products and the environment. SA8000 has only one international unified certification body, SAI (Social Responsibility International), namely Social Responsibility International.

SA8000 certification generally takes 1 year, and the certificate is valid for 3 years and reviewed every 6 months.

SA8000 is to protect the rights of workers in enterprises and stipulate the responsibilities that enterprises must bear to society and stakeholders. The requirements of SA8000 standard for enterprises include:

1, and shall not use or support the use of child labor;

2. Do not use or support the use of forced labor, and do not require employees to pay "deposit" or store identity documents at the beginning of nursing;

3. All employees' freedom of association and collective bargaining rights should be respected;

4. Anti-discrimination principle

5. Do not participate in or support corporal punishment, mental or physical coercion and verbal insults;

6. Working hours should strictly comply with local legal requirements;

7. The wages paid by enterprises to employees shall not be lower than the minimum standards of laws or industries;

8, should have the knowledge to avoid various industries and specific hazards, provide employees with a safe and healthy working environment, take adequate measures to reduce the risk factors at work, try to prevent accidents or health injuries, and provide all employees with a safe and hygienic living environment, including clean bathrooms, clean and safe dormitories and hygienic food storage equipment;

9. Senior management should formulate an open and transparent company policy according to this standard, which can be understood and implemented at all levels according to social responsibility and working conditions.

10. Employees who resign need to write a written application one month in advance.

Summary of domestic research on SA8000

Li Youhuan Du Bin

In western countries, a corporate social responsibility movement with the theme of "labor protection, consumer rights protection and environmental protection" is in the ascendant. Enterprises, governments, academia and other sectors of society attach great importance to the implementation of corporate social responsibility. 20011February, the American NGO Social Responsibility International (SAI) released the self-standard version, which is the first revised version of the international standard of social responsibility that can be used for third-party certification in the world-SA8000: 2001.Its contents include child labor, forced labor, health and safety, freedom of association and collective bargaining rights. After the introduction of SA8000, it has had a certain impact on China's economy and trade, and attracted the attention of academic circles. Generally speaking, the academic research on SA8000 includes the background and nature of SA8000, its influence on China, China's countermeasures and its normative evaluation.

I background and nature of SA8000

The background of 1.SA8000 is due to the development of humanities and society, that is, with the development of social economy, people from all walks of life attach importance to labor protection. At the same time, it is also the product of unbalanced competition pattern in the international market. Although ethics and international trade belong to two completely different fields, great changes have taken place in the political and economic structure of the world since the end of the Cold War. The rapid development of newly industrialized countries has made developed countries lose their advantages in the international market of traditional products. In many fields, newly industrialized countries have become competitors of developed countries. In order to curb the means and ways for developing countries to improve their competitiveness, some developed countries seek to establish various non-tariff trade barriers. In the international commodity market, manufacturers of cheap labor-intensive products export a large number of cheap products to developed countries' markets, which impacts the domestic markets of developed countries. It is against this background that developed countries such as the United States and Europe link labor standards with their universal preferential system for developing countries. With the approval and support of the government, SA8000 has a tendency to move from folk barriers to government barriers (Li Youhuan, 2006). With the acceleration of economic globalization, the division of labor and cooperation between China and the international community is getting closer and closer. Liang Guiquan (2004) thinks that the development of corporate social responsibility movement in China is the direct result of economic globalization and China's entry into WTO. On a global scale, corporate social responsibility is driven by two social forces. One force is the labor movement against the globalization of capital. The intensification of labor-capital conflict and the decline of labor status make the labor organization require the implementation and enforcement of international labor standards in enterprises to protect workers' rights. Another social force is the implementation of SA8000 "Labor Trade Barriers". Cheap products from developing countries have impacted the markets and employment in developed countries. Developed countries in Europe and America attempt to link international trade through social provisions, thus weakening the comparative advantage of developing countries and implementing trade protection and non-tariff barriers. With the development of the times, people pay more attention to culture than ever before. The implementation of the so-called corporate social responsibility standard SA8000 is a collision of global culture and values. Tian Feng (2004) thinks that corporate culture is the core of corporate social responsibility construction and guides the value orientation of corporate social responsibility construction. The growing global corporate social responsibility movement is to urge enterprises to repay society with ethical actions while enjoying the freedom and opportunities endowed by society. Global corporate social responsibility and corporate culture complement each other, influence each other and develop together.

2. The nature of SA8000 Regarding the nature of SA8000, most scholars think that it has some characteristics of trade barriers, and some people call it "blue barriers". Blue barriers refers to taking relevant trade protection measures under the pretext of workers' working environment and survival rights. It is the general name of labor security, workers' treatment, labor rights and labor standards, and complements political rights. SA8000 is the core of standard blue barriers (Zhang Taihai, 2007). Ye Xiangsong (2004) believes that with the resurgence of trade protectionism and the continuous renovation of trade barriers, as a kind of SA8000 aimed at paying attention to the physical and mental health of workers and the rights and interests of workers, it not only caters to the protection of human rights and the environment in developed countries, thus achieving the purpose of protecting domestic industries and restraining the competitive advantage of developing countries, but also satisfies the curiosity of the public and consumers about sustainable development. Therefore, the concealment and deception of SA8000, a new form of trade barrier, makes it exist. Li Youhuan (2004a) thinks that SA8000, as a certification system, clarifies the norms of social responsibility and puts forward the corresponding management system requirements. The combination of social responsibility and management can regulate the moral behavior of organizations, especially enterprises, to a certain extent, which is helpful to improve working conditions and protect the rights and interests of workers. Although the purpose of SA8000 is good, it is very easy to be used by trade protectionists and become a tool for developing countries to restrict the export of labor-intensive products. Yu Weibin (2005) also believes that due to the compulsory certification of SA8000, this "workplace behavior standard" has evolved into a continuation of the dispute of "linking" international trade and international labor standards, which has raised the labor issues in the production chain and supply chain to the national level. As a result, a voluntary enterprise standard has become a mandatory international trade standard. Although most scholars think that SA8000 has the characteristics of trade barriers, some people hold the opposite view that SA8000 does not have the characteristics of trade barriers: from the production process, SA8000 is produced to solve the consistency problem of various social responsibility standards, not to weaken the competitiveness of products in developing countries, and the fundamental basis of social responsibility movement is the public, who will not be the initiator of trade barriers; From the standard content, SA8000 is universal and flexible. Judging from the nature of the standard, SA8000 is an unofficial standard, which does not belong to state behavior; Multinational companies require their suppliers to obtain SA8000 certification for their own benefit, not to restrict trade (Zhao Nan, 2005).

Second, the influence of SA8000 on China.

1. Impact on foreign trade export Many scholars believe that the implementation of SA8000 in China will bear the brunt of the impact on China's foreign trade export. The comparative advantage of China products is mainly reflected in the low labor cost. If strict labor standards and corporate social responsibility standards are implemented, there is no doubt that labor costs will increase. For example, if enterprises implement the SA8000 standard or the standards formulated by some multinational companies, the average labor cost of some labor-intensive producers will increase by 50%- 100%, and the increase in production costs is disastrous for enterprises in developing countries, which is tantamount to driving products from developing countries out of the international market (Cao, 2004). The fatal key of SA8000 is that it effectively reduces the biggest comparative advantage of developing countries in the competition-labor cost. Because the implementation of SA8000 certification and maintenance requires enterprises to invest huge manpower, material resources and financial resources to apply and update, which will undoubtedly greatly increase the cost and make enterprises overwhelmed (Liang Guiquan, Li Youhuan, 2004). He Zhou (2006) thinks that SA8000 will not only hinder the export of China's labor-intensive products, but also change the export market structure of China's labor-intensive products and affect the depth of international cooperation in labor-intensive industries. 80% of China's export markets are developed countries and newly industrialized countries and regions. Developed countries actively promote SA8000 certification, which objectively forms a trade barrier for the export of labor-intensive products in China, forcing China-related enterprises to reopen new international markets. If the labor standard is raised to the level stipulated in SA8000 standard, the production cost of export products will increase, thus reducing the attraction to foreign investment. At the same time, multinational companies will be afraid that their subcontractors will not meet the standards and will not invest, which will have a negative impact on the cooperation between labor-intensive industries and foreign capital.

2. Impact on enterprise competitiveness The impact of SA8000 on enterprise competitiveness is mainly to increase the production cost of enterprises. The implementation of SA8000 standard will lead to three kinds of costs: one is the time cost needed to evaluate the current situation, formulate system principles and procedures, and control and record; The second is the cost of taking remedial measures, that is, the cost of reducing working hours, raising wages and improving the working and living environment; The third is the cost of certification, review and continuous control and supervision review (Zhang Taihai, 2007). The implementation of SA8000 increased the cost of products and weakened the international competitiveness of products. Liu (2006) thinks that the implementation of SA8000 will reduce the international competitive advantage of Chinese enterprises, especially labor-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises. For a long time, China's abundant and cheap labor force has become the key for many enterprises to gain international competitive advantage. Although China has done a lot of work in protecting workers' rights and interests, some enterprises still do not take social responsibility in this respect. SA8000 requires China enterprises to meet social responsibility standards as the premise of trade, and the cost of many enterprises will increase greatly, which will certainly reduce the export competitiveness of domestic enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, and affect their competitive advantage in the international market. Zhang Wenbing and Ge Yongbo (2003) believe that SA8000 will enhance the differentiated advantages of industries in developed countries, which will also weaken the competitive advantages of our products. With the implementation of SA8000, consumers in developed countries will form a gradually solidified impression that products that undertake corporate social responsibility and pass SA8000 certification have stricter moral standards in social responsibility. On the contrary, many products in developing countries will be labeled as squeezing workers, exploiting child labor and inhumanity without SA8000 certification. This will affect consumers' purchase choices and form the differentiated advantages of developed countries' products in this respect. In the short term, SA8000 has a negative impact on the competitiveness of China enterprises; In the long run, it is an opportunity to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises in China. SA8000 has become a new element of enterprise competition in the global economy, which directly affects the improvement of international competitiveness of enterprises from the aspects of winning consumers' attention and recognition, enhancing investors' confidence, improving enterprise human resource management, perfecting enterprise management system and promoting enterprises' participation in international division of labor (Qu Jianzhong and Liu Guohua, 2004). In terms of indirect influence, because SA8000 is more inclined to pay attention to cultural values, ideology and labor system, it provides a model that enterprises should have as social organizations at a deeper level, which will greatly promote China enterprises to get rid of the shackles of some backward traditional cultural values and adapt to the rules of the international market, thus indirectly affecting the long-term development of enterprises and the promotion of international competitiveness (Wang Liping, Jiang Lanling, 2005).

3. Impact on human resource management The accelerated implementation of SA8000 is both an opportunity and a challenge for human resource management in labor-intensive industries. The implementation of SA8000 will lead to the conflict between the improvement of employees' salary level and the increase of enterprise human resource cost, the decrease of negative externalities of enterprise human resource use and the increase of enterprise burden, the enhancement of employees' rights and the increase of enterprise human resource management risks. The acceptance of SA8000 standard by enterprises is a constraint on human resource management of enterprises. If the SA8000 standard is enforced at this stage, many labor-intensive industries will inevitably fall into a disadvantageous position (Chen Shuni, Li Youhuan, 2006). On the other hand, the development of human resource management is also guaranteed by the system. Because the traditional human resource management is restricted by capital, it cannot be developed simply from the perspective of human resources. When the interests of enterprises conflict with the interests of employees, even though human resource management has the intention of safeguarding the interests of employees, it still succumbs to the power of capital in many cases. The implementation of SA8000 requires business owners to sacrifice some benefits to safeguard the rights and interests of employees. As far as human resource management is concerned, SA8000 can solve the biggest financial obstacle of human resource management (Yang, 2005).

4. Other influences Li Youhuan (2004b) thinks that SA8000 invalidates the technical secrets of enterprises to some extent. Only when enterprises have technology monopoly can they have product and market monopoly, and only then can they have high returns. If the secret technology is leaked or stolen, it will directly threaten the economic interests of enterprises and even affect their survival and development. SA8000 also poses a challenge to the economic security of the country. The current international political, economic and military relations are based on high technology. The research and development of high technology and its application in various economic sectors, especially military sectors, have become the focus of competition and contest among countries. The implementation of SA8000 will enable developed countries to use this as an excuse to steal high technology from other countries and create more convenient conditions. The influence of SA8000 on the development of national economy. China is a big country with relatively rich labor resources, and the competitive advantage of labor-intensive industries in China mainly lies in unskilled labor with low labor costs. If the enterprise reaches the standard of SA8000 in an all-round way, the advantage of labor force may disappear or even become a disadvantage, and more surplus labor force cannot be placed, which will definitely have a negative impact on the stability of our society and the development of national economy.

Second, how to deal with the impact of SA8000

1. Measures taken by the government. The government's countermeasures include: formulating export sustainable development strategy and accelerating the establishment of sustainable development evaluation index system; Establish a unified and standardized product certification and accreditation system; Establish early warning mechanism of SA8000, collect and track relevant measures of SA8000 abroad, establish SA8000 information center and database, study the influence of SA8000 on China's main export products, take active countermeasures and create a good export environment; Give play to the role of intermediary organizations such as trade associations and import and export chambers of commerce; Strengthen the research, publicity, training and popularization of SA8000 knowledge (Li Youhuan, 2004a). At the same time, bringing the implementation of corporate social responsibility movement in China into the track of labor legal system will play a positive role in improving the international competitiveness of enterprises and building harmonious labor relations (Liu Yun, 2005).

2. Measures taken at the enterprise level For enterprises, we should learn from international experience, strengthen labor protection, continuously improve the management level of enterprise human resources, and pay attention to the diversification of incentive mechanism, so as to stimulate the creativity of human resources as much as possible, thus establishing international reputation, cultivating consumers' positive feelings about enterprises and products, establishing long-term confidence of partners in enterprises, and helping to break through foreign barriers to China (Li, 2005); Enterprises should transform the input of social responsibility into market competitiveness, change passivity into initiative, and strive to achieve a win-win situation of economic interests, employee interests and social interests, so as to truly realize the sustainable development of enterprises (Jiang, He Wei, 2004); Establish the basic platform of modern human resource management system based on SA8000 system, improve the human resource management system of enterprises according to the specific requirements of SA8000 system, and specifically improve relevant rules and regulations, including core labor standards, working hours and wages, health and safety, etc. , and established a human resources supervision system based on SA8000 system (,Qu,, 2006); We should pay close attention to the development of SA8000 and analyze its possible impact. At the same time, enterprises strictly abide by the existing laws and regulations in China and actively improve labor relations. Because most enterprises have long-term defects in the protection of workers' rights and interests and enterprise management, even the most basic labor laws and regulations can not be well observed, so once the developed countries formally implement SA8000, it may cause a great blow to China's export enterprises and related enterprises, so it is very important to abide by China's existing labor protection laws and regulations (Yuan Jianxin, 2004).

Four. Evaluation and research of SA8000

Li Youhuan (2005) thinks that SA8000 has the following defects: SA8000 has many names, although it is nominally corporate social responsibility, the certification content basically only involves labor protection; Sai regards Taiwan Province Province as a country with ulterior motives; Putting national laws, company regulations and this standard on the same footing to piece together a standard, the specific terms of SAS000 are unscientific and the specific content is difficult to operate; The dislocation of promotion methods leads to the fact that most enterprises in our country are pushed by the pressure of multinational purchasing companies, and almost no enterprises take the initiative to apply for it in order to improve their social responsibility construction of labor protection or improve their social image. Borrowing the concept of ISO, ISO has set up legal offices in all member countries, and its certification conditions and procedures are standardized and open. SA8000 is only developed and launched by a small private organization in the United States, and there are only nine certification bodies in the world. Covering up its geographical limitations, consumers in western countries or all walks of life do not know much about SA8000, and the American National Organization for Standardization (ANSI) has not yet recognized the SA8000 standard. The certification standards and requirements of various certification bodies are different, and the total cost of certification is high, so it is difficult to implement it widely. Zhao Yingzong (2005) thinks that SA8000 is positioned as a trade standard decided by the people, just to avoid the research, decision-making and management power of WTO, and to make its profit-making behavior both grandiose and extremely concealed with the purpose of "humanism" or "social responsibility". SA8000 has the dual requirements of "social responsibility" and "trade barrier", and it has the duality of rationality and irrationality, and its rationality lies in its humanistic characteristics. However, once humanitarianism is selectively included in trade standards, it will easily be distorted by new mercantilism, leading to essential alienation. On the one hand, new mercantilism devalues the comparative cost advantage of developing countries' industries, on the other hand, it strengthens the differentiated advantage of developed countries to developing countries' industries, and affects the international economic and trade pattern through the interaction of these two aspects. Li Youhuan and Ye Xiangsong (2007) evaluated the SA8000 certification from a practical point of view: under the condition that the legal status of SA8000 in China cannot be confirmed, there have been widespread illegal acts in the SA8000 certification and consulting market in China. Many organizations claim that they can provide SA8000 consultation and recommendation certification for enterprises, but once disputes arise, enterprises eager to apply for certification cannot protect their legitimate rights and interests; The confusion of certification fees leads to serious tax evasion by operators. Because the certification subject of SA8000 and its business behavior have no legal status in China, there can be no business subject that pays taxes according to law. In addition, such authentication is generally conducted in secret, and tax avoidance is naturally common. This widespread tax evasion also violates the relevant laws and regulations of China and the world.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) conclusion

After SA8000 was introduced to China's national economy and foreign trade, the academic circles in China conducted in-depth research and discussion on all aspects of SA8000. Although there is no clear conclusion about some characteristics of SA8000, on the whole, the academic circles have the following views: First, the conditions for China to fully accept SA8000 certification are not yet mature, and the wide implementation of SA8000 will have a great negative impact on China's labor-intensive industries. In this regard, the relevant departments and enterprises of our government should guard against foreign countries endangering our economic situation; Second, the implementation of SA8000 has promoted and promoted the construction of corporate social responsibility in China to a certain extent. Compared with developed countries, corporate social responsibility in China still has a long way to go. The popularization of SA8000 will make enterprises and society pay more attention to the construction of corporate social responsibility, pay attention to the protection of workers' rights and interests, truly establish a people-oriented Scientific Outlook on Development and promote the harmonious development of society; Third, China should actively promote the standards of corporate social responsibility construction in line with the current national conditions, promote the construction of corporate social responsibility in China, and establish a dialogue platform with relevant foreign institutions to avoid being in a backward and passive position in the construction of corporate social responsibility.

Benefits of implementing SA8000 certification

A socially responsible enterprise can benefit from business operations, including:

* "Enterprises with social responsibility" can win the trust of the public, enhance the image and reputation of enterprises and gain market advantages.

* Greatly reduce the number of customer audits and avoid the cost, time and management of repeated audits.

* A clear commitment to humanized work standards can attract more high-quality talents and improve employee loyalty and work efficiency.

The audit team will visit the relevant facilities of the customer organization and evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the social responsibility plan to ensure that the facilities meet the requirements of SA8000.

The uniqueness of SA8000 is that it contains the requirements of "food basket" and local minimum housing cost, which is used to determine the minimum wage standard.