On Aug. 21, Forest SC issued new labor requirements advice notes.
Forest SC published new versions of FSC-ADVICE-40-004-23 V2-0Evaluation of Contractors against the FSC Core Labour Requirements and FSC-ADVICE-20-011-16 V2-0Evaluation of Contractors against the FSC Core Labour Requirements.
Available as separate documents while changes are made to the Directive documents.
Key Points
Forest SC previously published FSC-ADVICE-40-004-23 V1-0 in order to provide instructions on on how labor requirements are be applied to contractors, see #183779.
The regulator also published new version FSC-ADVICE-20-011-16, in order to provide a guide to certification bodies on assessing contractors under outsourcing agreements with Chain of Custody certificate holders against core labour regulations.
Previous advice notes received concerns about clarity and time for implementation.
Concerns such as use of ITUC’s Global Rights Index in outsourcing agreement risk assessments and Forest SC revised the advice notes to address these concerns.
A derogation was provided by the regulator, allowing time for revisions, and maintaining requirements for policy statements and self-assessments for contractors.
Updates
Requirements split across two advice notes to separate requirements aimed at organizations and certification bodies; content previously provided in both directives.
The regulator enhanced the terms and definition section, to provide more clarity.
In addition, Forest SC added sampling for ‘low risk’ for a more risk-based approach - previously, this had only been provided for ‘high-risk’ outsourcing agreements.
Effectiveness
These advice notes are effective from Nov. 1, 2024, with transition end Dec. 31, 2025.
