Premium
Oversight and accountability in the social auditing industry: The role of social compliance initiatives
Author(s) -
TERWINDT Carolijn,
ARMSTRONG Amy
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
international labour review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.433
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1564-913X
pISSN - 0020-7780
DOI - 10.1111/ilr.12143
Subject(s) - sanctions , audit , accountability , compliance (psychology) , business , social responsibility , accounting , public relations , quality (philosophy) , political science , law , psychology , social psychology , philosophy , epistemology
The 2013 Rana Plaza collapse led to increased awareness of abusive working conditions in the garment industry. Much attention has since been paid to the role and responsibility of retailing companies. The responsibility of social auditing companies, however, has often been overlooked. The authors investigate the systems in place to detect and address substandard auditing that fails to detect violations of workers' rights. They find that, in practice, oversight of social auditors and sanctions for substandard audits are both limited. In this light, this article explores how social compliance initiatives can play a role in improving verification of audit quality and ensuring accountability.