The enhancements are expected to increase transparency in this data, thereby supporting the promotion of fair labour practices within international supply chains.
SLCP CEO Janet Mensink said: “This update is part of our multi-year CAF roadmap, designed to ensure that the Converged Assessment Framework remains both relevant and scalable in an evolving regulatory environment. Version 1.7 introduces enhancements that will not only maintain high-quality reports and provide credible, actionable data, but also better align with emerging human rights due diligence standards. The new version also includes features that make it easier to identify and address social and labour issues, enabling facilities to share critical findings with brands during the assessment, rather than waiting for a final report.”
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The Higg Facility Social & Labor Module (Higg FSLM), which is based on SLCP’s CAF, forms a component of Cascale’s Higg Index, a collection of tools exclusively accessible through Worldly, a platform offering insights into sustainability within supply chains.
Both the Higg FSLM and SLCP’s CAF are designed to tackle systemic labour issues and promote equitable working conditions worldwide. They also aim to reduce the burden of repeated audits on manufacturers and suppliers.
These tools undergo annual updates by SLCP, Cascale, and Worldly in line with feedback from stakeholders to maintain their relevance and enhance their functionality.
With the release of CAF v1.7 for the Higg FSLM, there is now greater alignment with due diligence processes and governance requirements, notes SLCP.
This update is said to promote a more uniform and systematic method for assessing social and labour practices, contributing to increased transparency in the consumer goods sector’s supply chains. Such improvements not only make businesses more robust but also help in uncovering potential risks.
This systematic methodology allows facilities to consistently recognise, confront, and lessen significant concerns while supporting workers’ rights and welfare, as well as evaluating overall workplace conditions.
Moreover, it sharpens the detection of non-compliance within the data set and aligns with Better Work Zero Tolerance Protocols as well as International Labour Organization (ILO) Core Conventions for consistency with international labour standards.
Cascale Higg Index SVP Jeremy Lardeau said: “The Higg FSLM is a critical tool underpinning Cascale’s Support Decent Work for All strategic pillar, through which we aim to champion workers’ rights, ensure fair purchasing practices, and streamline audits to foster safe and equitable workplaces.
“Especially at a time when tariffs highlight the fragility of global supply chains, these tools are critically important. When companies use a common benchmark to measure and improve performance, they build efficiencies that reduce audit fatigue and, ultimately, save time and money.”
In addition to updating the CAF, SLCP is broadening verifications to include 44 new countries and providing additional language options for self-assessment tools.
The CAF will now be accessible in Latin American Spanish, supplementing existing versions in English, Chinese, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
