In the context of globalisation and international competition, many companies source labour-intensive goods from developing and newly industrialised countries. However, working conditions in these countries often do not comply with basic labour standards, such as those established by the International Labour Organization (ILO). To address this issue, many companies and associations have created individual codes of conduct and monitoring systems.
The proliferation of individual codes, varying audit procedures and diverging approaches, has resulted in audit duplications within the same factory. This leads to unnecessary efforts, confusion about requirements, lack of transparency, lack of accountability, and higher costs for companies and their producers in risk countries.
BSCI works to tackle these challenges by offering a broad platform for cooperation.
In 2003, BSCI was established by the Foreign Trade Association (FTA) in order to create consistency and harmonisation for companies wanting to improve their social compliance in the global supply chain. BSCI aims to establish a common platform for the various European companies Codes of Conducts and monitoring systems, it also lays the groundwork for a common monitoring system for social compliance. The experience and the know-how gained by companies and associations from their monitoring systems were the foundations of the BSCI approach and management instruments. In 2004 the development phase was achieved and the system has since been implemented worldwide.
Following dramatic growth of BSCI over the years, in 2011 FTA made the decision to clearly include sustainability as one of its pillars and therefore adopted a stronger organisational structure to further develop the growth of the association and maintain an excellent service to its members
