1.1 Handling of comments
Evaluation of information received from stakeholders after the main evaluation
Comments received from stakeholders after the main evaluation shall be recorded, and evaluated and documented at the following surveillance evaluation, unless provided as part of a formal complaint or indicating a major non-conformity requiring immediate action. This means situations not possible to post-phone to the next surveillance audit, I e threatened HCV, conversion of forest land etc.
Comments received shall be sent to a Lead Auditor for evaluation if the comment indicates a Major non-conformity that requires immediate action or not.
Comments indicating a Major non-conformity that requires immediate action shall be taken care of without any delay. A Lead Auditor shall be assigned to investigate the case as soon as possible, at the latest during the next Complaint and appeal Board meeting.
1.2 Handling of complaints and appeals
Responsibility to handle complaints/claims on commercial issues or on performance of auditors is on the Administrative Customer Service Department.
All other complaints from third party or stakeholders shall be handled by AAPA. In all complaint handling AAPA shall keep each other informed of status, progress, corrective actions and decisions. All appeals (dispute on the outcome of complaint/claim) shall be handled by AAPA. All communication with the third party or stakeholders shall be done by AAPA shall respond to complaints and appeals in the same language that is used in the public summary certification report, or shall agree with the complainant on the language used.
AAPA shall retain the anonymity of the complainant in relation to the client, if this is requested by the complainant.
AAPA shall treat anonymous complaints and expressions of dissatisfaction that are not substantiated as complaints as stakeholder comments and address these during the next audit.
AAPA shall register all complaints with FSC.
The members of the complaint and appeal board shall be within the AAPA's contractual (e g. employee) or organizational control (e g. committee). The decision resolving the complaint or appeal shall be made by, or reviewed and approved by, person(s) not involved in the evaluation related to the complaint or appeal.
AAPA has the duty of seeking a timely resolution of complaints and appeals.
AAPA has published summary information about the procedures for submitting complaints, appeals and disputes, and the procedures for handling such complaints, appeals and disputes on the website and will also send this information in print on request. This information is publicly available in English on the AAPA website. If needed, each country with FSC/PEFC customers shall publish these procedures in their own language on the regional webpage.
Procedure:
Complaints and appeals are registered at administrative.。An initial response sent from administrative, including an outline of the proposed course of action to follow up on the complaint or appeal, is sent to the complainant within two (2) weeks of receiving the complaint or appeal (autoreply when the complaint mail address is used).
AAPA shall, in addition to the autoreply, confirm whether the complaint or appeal relates to certification activities for which it is responsible and, if so, shall address it.
AAPA shall also require that the complaint and appeal includes all necessary information, including a clear description with details and cause of the complaint and appeal, and objective evidence to support each element or aspect of the complaint and appeal, and including the name and contact information of the submitter. If any information is lacking AAPA shall get back to the complainant and ask for the missing information.
There is a Complaint and Appeal meeting every month, and all incoming complaints during the time since last meeting shall be handled, and a progress report shall be sent to the complainant after the meeting.
To secure a good understanding of the complaint/appeal, the complainant should be contacted, a verbal meeting is preferred, and the aspects of the case to be discussed. AAPA shall verify the understanding of the case, and as far as possible the staff handling the case shall be in verbal communication with the complainant and the certificated organisation. In cases where the complaint appeal is clearly described and the answers from the certified organisation are clear and understandable, this initial contact and verbal contact, is not needed.
AAPA shall keep the complainant() informed of progress in evaluating the complaint appeal and shall have investigated the allegations and specified all its proposed actions in response to the complaint or appeal within three (3) months of receiving the complaint or appeal.
The complaint and appeal board are responsible for gathering and verifying all necessary information (as far as possible) to progress the complaint or appeal to a decision. The board can delegate this to Qualified Auditors, except for the decision.
When the process leads to non-conformity, suspension or withdrawal, the List of findings(LOF) shall be updated and sent to the customer. In addition, the Team Leader(TL) shall be informed of the decision. The coordinator in the Complaint and Appeal Board is responsible for this communication. The coordinator may also decide, in coordination with the TL, who shall communicate the decision to the certificate holder. The way it has been communicated to the Certificate Holder(CH) shall be documented together with the documentation of the decision. In cases of recommendation for suspension or withdrawal the result has to be sent to Technical Review for decision making.
The same process shall be used for decisions on waive or downgrading of NCs. This can be the result of an appeal from the CH or from an interpretation received from PEFC or scheme owner.
All decisions around issuance of NCs, waive or downgrading of NCs, suspension or withdrawal shall be documents in detail.
All decisions have to be followed up before the case is closed.
Full implementation of actions and confirmation of implementation (e.g. correction and closing out of non-compliances that may have been identified as a result of the complaint or appeal) shall be completed in compliance with the requirements specified in Non-conformities.
The complaint and appeal board shall notify the complainant when the complaint is considered to be closed, meaning that AAPA has gathered and verified all necessary information, investigated the allegations, taken a decision on the complaint and responded to the complainant.
A complainant shall be offered the opportunity to refer their complaint to PEFC or scheme owner. if the issue has not been resolved through the full implementation of AAPA's own procedures, or if the complainant disagrees with the conclusions reached by AAPA and/ or is dissatisfied by the way AAPA handled the complaint. As the ultimate step, the complaint may be referred to PEFC or scheme owner.
Complaints/allegations of misuse of the PEFC or scheme owner. logo shall be handled without delay. The certificate holder shall be contacted and verifying documents for purchase and sales shall be sent to AAPA within two (2) weeks of receiving a complaint allegation and a notification shall be sent to AAPA for notification to PEFC or scheme owner Trademark Unit. If the matter cannot be solved through desk audit, a short-notice audit shall be performed as soon as possible.
For certificates that are withdrawn as a consequence of misuse of the PEFC or scheme owner logo, the case is handled over to PEFC or scheme owner Trademark unit.
The Administrative of AAPA shall record and track complaints and appeals, as well as actions undertaken to resolve them.