Changes to the WCA 3.0 standard

Workplace Conditions Assessment (WCA) will be available in version 3.0 on June 1, 2021.

1.WCA 3.0 standard changes

There are no changes to the overall evaluation methodology, audit size, sample size, or WCA achievement award criteria. Suppliers shall continue to meet labor, wage and hour, health and safety, management systems and environmental requirements. Some requirements have been added to the WCA standard, but are not expected to require significant preparation or financial input.

Summary of WCA 3.0 standard changes

The following elements of the Workplace Social Responsibility Assessment (WCA) standard have been modified. For a complete description of the entire WCA standard, see the WCA Vendor Guidance document.

* new! = indicates a newly added checkpoint

Bold italic text = indicates a specific change to an existing checkpoint

2. WCA 3.0 rating change

Due to the changes in the rating of some clauses, the WCA program scoring criteria will be stricter. The upgrade of these terms is in line with industry expectations of suppliers achieving the highest performance in the area of social compliance. Upgrades include upgrading from Minor to Moderate, and/or Moderate to Major. Zero Tolerances did not change. This means that if these issues are found during the WCA 3.0 review process, your score will be lower than the WCA 2.0 score.

Summary of WCA 3.0 rating changes

The following checkpoints in the Workplace Social Responsibility Assessment (WCA) criteria apply a stricter rating. These are not new checkpoints, but the occurrence of violations will result in a lower performance score than the previous version of the rating.

3.WCA business practices and rapid review of changes

Business practices (integrity, data protection, fair play) remain optional modules for WCA membership. In WCA 3.0, the score of this module will be added to the total score of the enterprise, and will no longer be a separate score module.

WCA Quickscan 3.0 (1 auditor day) will be available as a separate checklist later in 2021. Until then, the existing WCA Quick Audit (Quickscan) will continue to run under WCA 2.0.

4.WCA certification audit report and logo revision

The design of the WCA audit report has changed. The overall layout and content remain the same, but with the new WCA logo, following the Intertek brand guidelines.

Color and font mode updated

The conformance description of each module is added

The base data range is adjusted to the average results of the past 5 years (note: the base data of working hours and wages are adjusted to the average results of the past 2 years)

Prompt recurring audit findings

Added best practice description