A social compliance audit asks a different question from a quality audit. It looks at how the people making the cartons are treated – hours, wages, safety, freedom of association, the absence of child labour – rather than whether the cartons meet specification. Packaging buyers increasingly ask for both, and the two reports are not interchangeable.
The main schemes are BSCI, SMETA and Sedex, with SA8000 certification as the heavier option. BSCI and SMETA are audit programmes run by or for member organisations, and their reports are shared through platforms rather than published. Sedex is the platform itself, holding audit data and self-assessment questionnaires. A factory can hold a Sedex membership with a SMETA audit uploaded, which is why buyers see the names used almost interchangeably.
What the audit covers is broad and specific at once. Working hours and overtime against local law, wage calculations including deductions, contracts for temporary workers, age verification, health and safety including chemical handling and fire safety, grievance mechanisms, and the right to organise. Evidence comes from payroll records, time clock data, worker interviews and a walk through the site, not from a policy manual.
Printing and converting plants have their own recurring findings. Solvent and ink exposure without adequate extraction or PPE. Overtime above legal limits in peak season. Sub-contracted hand assembly performed off site without disclosure. Fire exits blocked by board stock. First-aid provision that exists on paper and not on the floor. These repeat across the industry because they come from the shape of the work rather than from neglect alone.
Grading systems differ. BSCI reports a rating from A to E with a defined follow-up period, SMETA reports findings as observations, non-conformances and critical non-conformances without a single grade, and buyers map those onto their own vendor requirements. A report that looks clean at first glance can contain a critical finding that requires a follow-up audit within weeks.
Who pays is negotiated. The factory usually pays for the audit, and the cost sits inside the price of the packaging whether or not it appears on the quote. Some buyers fund the first audit to bring a supplier into a programme. Where a factory holds multiple scheme audits for different customers, the cost and the administrative load both multiply, which is a reason buyers sometimes accept an existing report rather than commissioning a new one.
Reading a report properly means reading the findings and the closure evidence rather than the summary grade. A finding closed with a photograph of a new fire exit is different from a finding closed with a written procedure. The date of the audit matters too – a two-year-old report describes a factory that has since hired, expanded or changed shift patterns.
Corrective action plans are where the value sits. A factory that closes findings quickly and documents the closure is managing its own risk, and buyers who track closure rates learn more about a supplier than from any single grade. Where a finding recurs across two audits, the management system is not working regardless of what the report says.
The relationship with quality and food safety schemes is often confused. Social audits cover labour and safety; BRCGS covers product safety and hygiene; ISO 9001 covers quality management. A factory can hold one and not the others. The certification FAQ for FSC and recycled content covers yet another layer, and none of these substitute for a buyer’s own inspection of an order.
For a packaging order, the practical question is which scheme the buyer’s vendor manual names and whether the factory holds a current report under it. Where the buyer has no requirement, a supplier with a recent audit and a record of closing findings is still a safer counterparty than one with none, because the process forces a level of documentation that shows up in quality too.
This article is general information rather than compliance advice. Scheme rules, grading and follow-up periods change, and buyers’ vendor manuals set their own acceptance criteria. Confirm the current requirement with the buyer or the scheme owner before treating a report as sufficient.
If a social audit requirement is part of supplier onboarding, tell us which scheme and which grade the buyer expects. Chengtop produces caixas dobráveis, caixas de cartão ondulado and rigid boxes at our Wuhan plant and can confirm which reports are available for the site. Start on the quote request page.
Chengtop runs printing and converting at our plant in Wuhan, and supplier onboarding paperwork is part of the normal export routine. Message us with the scheme named in your vendor manual and we will respond with what applies to the site.
