Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA) Best Practice Guidance

SMETA 2-Pillar audit has been developed for auditing against the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), Base Code plus
the additional elements listed above. The guidance can be adopted and tailored to carry out audits against a
range of other standards with certain conditions (See Section 5.4: “Labour Codes”).
SMETA BPG undergoes an annual review to ensure that it reflects changes in social auditing. This process
includes feedback from stakeholders. The latest version will be available on the Sedex website.
In order to call it a SMETA audit the standard used for audit upload must be the ETI Code and the
protocol must be in line with this Best Practice Guidance.
Details of the ETI Code and the items to be investigated during a SMETA audit are found in: Appendix A1:
“Guidance by Clause” using the ETI base code.
Note: The ETI is an alliance of companies, trade unions and voluntary organisations who work in partnership to
improve the lives of workers across the globe. More information can be found at www.ethicaltrade.org.
1.3. SMETA 2-Pillar Audits and 4-Pillar Audits
SMETA Best Practice Guidance (4-Pillar Version 4.0, May 2012)
A SMETA 2-Pillar audit comprises the 2 auditing pillar of Labour Standards and Health & Safety, and these are
mandatory modules for any SMETA audit. It also contains the additional elements of Entitlement to work,
Subcontracting and Homeworking, and a shortened Environment assessment.
A SMETA 4-Pillar audit includes all the above plus the additional pillars of Environment ( extended assessment
– replaces shortened assessment ) and Business Practices These additional pillars may not be required for all
Sedex members and it is important that sites of employment and auditors are clear when these extra modules
are required. For more information on 4-Pillar SMETA audits, see section 5. 5: 4-Pillar SMETA Audits.
The basic 2-Pillars of a SMETA audit are governed by the standards contained in the ETI base code.
The additional pillars of Environment (extended version) and Business Practices in a 4-Pillar audit are governed
by standards arrived at by a process of membership and multi-stakeholder consultation.
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