WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:14.070 00:00:14.070 --> 00:00:17.700 Welcome to the module on the general requirements of the Auditing Rules. 00:00:18.190 --> 00:00:22.900 in this module, you will be able to understand what are the general requirements for a Rainforest 00:00:22.970 --> 00:00:27.960 Alliance audit process and have a high level understanding of the main general requirements 00:00:28.300 --> 00:00:33.730 of the auditing process. This module is meant for CB personnel from Rainforest alliance Approved 00:00:33.730 --> 00:00:39.170 Certification Bodies but may also be interesting for Certificate Holders who wish to understand 00:00:39.180 --> 00:00:43.820 more about how audits are conducted in the Rainforest Alliance Certification Program 00:00:44.470 --> 00:00:50.640 The first section of the Auditing Rules section 2.1 is called general requirements. The general 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:55.050 requirements, as you might imagine list all those conditions and rules which are relevant 00:00:55.070 --> 00:01:01.830 at all stages of an audit process regardless of context, scope, and or size. Most of the requirements 00:01:01.830 --> 00:01:07.270 mentioned in the general requirements section, are applicable for both farm and supply chain scopes. 00:01:08.880 --> 00:01:13.600 One of the topics touched upon in section 2.1 is the auditor's working hours. 00:01:14.280 --> 00:01:20.990 Requirement 2.1.4 states that the auditors cannot exceed 8 hours of total audit time. 00:01:21.420 --> 00:01:27.200 This includes auditing different shifts a day. Auditing is a hard work and may involve long 00:01:27.210 --> 00:01:33.390 working hours. However, Rainforest Alliance takes labor conditions quite seriously. We want our 00:01:33.390 --> 00:01:38.170 certification bodies to safeguard the well-being of its personnel and ensure healthy working 00:01:38.170 --> 00:01:43.530 environments and culture. But what exactly do we mean when we refer to CB personal working hours? 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:48.540 When auditors keep track of their time, they need to include not only auditing hours, 00:01:48.740 --> 00:01:54.720 but also time spent for other related activities. such as reporting reviewing evidence handling 00:01:54.720 --> 00:02:00.680 complaints and appeals etc. The eight hours include the time it takes to travel between the farms 00:02:00.940 --> 00:02:06.200 and exclude meals, breaks, and the time for the audit team to arrive at the audit site in the morning 00:02:06.410 --> 00:02:12.290 from his or her accommodation. It may be that under certain unforeseeable circumstances the audit team 00:02:12.520 --> 00:02:18.320 requires to work extra hours for instance workers are not available for interviews in 00:02:18.320 --> 00:02:22.120 such cases, the audit team shall record the hours worked in the corresponding 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:27.620 CBs record-keeping system. This report can be requested by Rainforest Alliance at any time. 00:02:28.350 --> 00:02:34.080 Tracking working hours is very important. You might decide to work late one or two days a week, 00:02:34.300 --> 00:02:39.940 then the next week you think yeah it's fine! I'll work a bit more this week too, but then all of a 00:02:39.940 --> 00:02:44.460 sudden you see yourself in the same situation for half a year but because you have not tracked this 00:02:44.480 --> 00:02:49.260 extra hours you will not be able to calculate the total amount of extra work you have accumulated. 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:57.180 Therefore, you will have little evidence to ask for compensation. Requirement 2.1.5 states that cbs 00:02:57.210 --> 00:03:03.040 must keep records of the working hours of their staff, this includes their auditors. As you can see 00:03:03.300 --> 00:03:08.060 recording hours is helpful when calculating overtime. Additionally, it is thanks to this 00:03:08.060 --> 00:03:12.200 record that CBs are required to ensure that overtime hours are compensated. 00:03:12.850 --> 00:03:18.780 It is essential for Rainforest Alliance that audits are carried out by competent CB personnel who have a 00:03:18.780 --> 00:03:19.290 guaranteed 00:03:19.290 --> 00:03:24.310 minimum level of understanding and experience in the Rainforest Alliance certification program 00:03:24.880 --> 00:03:29.430 this is why in the Rainforest Alliance Certification Program it is the responsibility 00:03:29.430 --> 00:03:35.190 of the Program's Management Team, more specifically the scheme manager, to assess compliance of each of 00:03:35.190 --> 00:03:41.110 its personnel versus Chapter 2 of the rules for the CB personnel. This way the scheme manager can 00:03:41.110 --> 00:03:47.010 identify gaps in knowledge and skills of the audit team pool and plan training accordingly. You can 00:03:47.010 --> 00:03:52.880 find Chapter 2 of the Rules for CBs on our webpage. This chapter describes the rules and requirements 00:03:52.890 --> 00:03:57.950 related to the competency and performance of CB personnel involved in the Rainforest Alliance 00:03:57.950 --> 00:04:03.160 Certification Process. Context and culture may influence auditor's perspective towards 00:04:03.160 --> 00:04:07.880 certain types of support that an auditor may provide to a Certificate Holder during an audit. 00:04:08.480 --> 00:04:12.880 This is why the Audit Team must always be mindful of the conflict of interest rule 00:04:13.060 --> 00:04:19.500 and refrain from consultancy work during an audit. For further details on what is and isn't allowed 00:04:19.550 --> 00:04:25.060 please see annex AR8 of the Certification and Auditing rules called Support Permitted and Not 00:04:25.060 --> 00:04:30.330 Permitted During an Audit. We understand that Certificate Holders want to hire CB personnel 00:04:30.610 --> 00:04:36.830 either independently or through the CB itself to provide consultancy work. This is why requirement 00:04:36.830 --> 00:04:44.130 2.1.13 state that CB personnel cannot perform any consultancy activities for any of its Rainforest 00:04:44.130 --> 00:04:49.750 Alliance clients two years before the first audit date and two years after the last audit date. 00:04:50.400 --> 00:04:55.350 For example, let us say that Alejandra is a freelance auditor working for an approved 00:04:55.390 --> 00:05:02.150 Rainforest Alliance CB in June 2022 she is approached by Finca Las Tres Flores to help 00:05:02.150 --> 00:05:07.100 them enhance their traceability records as they recently had a non-conformity regarding their 00:05:07.100 --> 00:05:12.500 volume estimates. Alejandra is well known in the certification world because of her knowledge of 00:05:12.500 --> 00:05:17.700 traceability. She accepts the offer and provides her support for a couple of weeks beginning on the 00:05:17.700 --> 00:05:25.000 6th finishing on the 15th of June 2022. Two years later Alejandra's certifier, Tanya, calls her to tell 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:30.240 her she has been assigned as the lead auditor for the certification audit of Finca La Tres Flores 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:36.710 The opening meeting is scheduled for the 4th of June 2024. Is this possible? Alejandra tells 00:05:36.710 --> 00:05:42.130 her certifier that she cannot be involved in the audit at least until the 16th of June 2024. 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:47.510 Her certifier consults la Finca Las Tres Flores and they both agree that they can wait for Alejandra. 00:05:48.340 --> 00:05:53.370 Alejandra carries out the audit on her proposed date and finishes with the closing meeting on the 00:05:53.370 --> 00:06:00.450 22nd of June 2024. During the closing meeting, there are minor non-conformities regarding their volumes 00:06:00.660 --> 00:06:05.890 and the manager of Finca Las Tres Flores asks her if she can come back to support them again. 00:06:05.890 --> 00:06:13.140 next week is this possible? Alejandra politely declines and says that due to requirement 2.1.13 00:06:13.210 --> 00:06:21.350 of the Auditing Rules she cannot help them until the 23rd of June 2026. An audit can be planned to 00:06:21.350 --> 00:06:27.160 the smallest detail, taking into account risks, records, etc. But there will always be surprises 00:06:27.610 --> 00:06:32.250 rainforest alliance knows this and then allows CB to deviate from any rules in the 00:06:32.250 --> 00:06:38.190 Rainforest Alliance assurance document or system. However, the certifier must ask Rainforest Alliance 00:06:38.190 --> 00:06:44.110 before taking any decision or deviating. Why? Rainforest Alliance wants to make sure that audit 00:06:44.110 --> 00:06:49.090 quality is guaranteed and that we can identify possible improvement opportunities in our standard. 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:55.110 If we receive numerous exemption requests on one rule maybe the rule needs to be revised or 00:06:55.110 --> 00:07:00.200 we need to provide further guidance. Either way it is important to always consult Rainforest 00:07:00.200 --> 00:07:05.760 Alliance in case of doubts over interpretations or auditability of our standard. Exception requests 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:12.240 can be submitted to cbcert@ra.org at least three weeks before the intended implementation date. 00:07:13.070 --> 00:07:19.690 There are, however, a few exceptions to this rule. Requirement 2.1.19 permits CB to deviate from 00:07:19.690 --> 00:07:25.960 Rainforest Alliance rules without prior approval in three circumstances only. A. when decisions are 00:07:25.960 --> 00:07:32.180 taken on sites and they have good justifications B. when the deviation does not jeopardize the 00:07:32.180 --> 00:07:37.860 credibility of the certification program, and C. when the deviations resulted from information 00:07:37.870 --> 00:07:43.530 or changes that were unknown to the audit team before the audit. In all three cases the CB audit 00:07:43.530 --> 00:07:49.460 team will have to provide evidence in the audit report to justify such a decision. The general 00:07:49.460 --> 00:07:54.570 requirements do mention some elements that are exclusive to Certificate Holders with a farm scope. 00:07:54.860 --> 00:07:59.770 For instance the Audit Team cannot share the names of farmers to be visited earlier than one 00:07:59.770 --> 00:08:05.550 day before the first audit day. Why? well we want our auditors to audit the reality of the farm 00:08:05.890 --> 00:08:09.640 this means that we want to know if everyday practices that happen in the field are 00:08:09.640 --> 00:08:15.810 following our standards. This also includes working conditions health and safety if the Audit Team 00:08:15.810 --> 00:08:20.440 shares the names of the workers to be interviewed long in advance, the farm management might be 00:08:20.440 --> 00:08:25.240 tempted to contact the workers and instruct them to provide answers that might not reflect reality 00:08:25.450 --> 00:08:29.860 in this module you learn about the general requirements that apply to all auditors at any 00:08:29.860 --> 00:08:35.600 given stage or context such as auditors working hours competence requirements and conflict of 00:08:35.630 --> 00:08:40.080 interest between the Audit Team and the auditee. We hope you now have a better understanding 00:08:40.090 --> 00:08:44.540 of the general requirements of the Auditing Rules thank you and see you in the next module!