Complaints
& Appeals
Objective
Complaints and appeals are related to dispute resolution issue.
Complaint – an expression of dissatisfaction made to an organization, related to its activities, manufactured products, or complaints handling process itself, where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected, as well as an expression of dissatisfaction with how executives and/or employees and/or subcontractors of UCSL meet the requirements of the certification system or how they invoke normative documents of certification schemes and/or UCSL, and also an expression of disagreement made by the stakeholders in relation to certain actions of a certified organization in the process of conducting business within the framework of certificate issued.
Appeal – stakeholder appealing of UCLS's decision related to the certification process, certification decisions, decisions on complaints, validity date, scale and/or scope of the certificate.
If any ground, complaints and appeals may be submitted in writing to UCSL from all kind of stakeholders including certification applicants, UCSL clients, communities and residents, government, administrations, NGO's etc.
The internal procedure based on the requirements of ISO 17065: 2012 establishes the system for receiving, evaluating, and resolving complaints and appeals.
Complaint – an expression of dissatisfaction made to an organization, related to its activities, manufactured products, or complaints handling process itself, where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected, as well as an expression of dissatisfaction with how executives and/or employees and/or subcontractors of UCSL meet the requirements of the certification system or how they invoke normative documents of certification schemes and/or UCSL, and also an expression of disagreement made by the stakeholders in relation to certain actions of a certified organization in the process of conducting business within the framework of certificate issued.
Appeal – stakeholder appealing of UCLS's decision related to the certification process, certification decisions, decisions on complaints, validity date, scale and/or scope of the certificate.
If any ground, complaints and appeals may be submitted in writing to UCSL from all kind of stakeholders including certification applicants, UCSL clients, communities and residents, government, administrations, NGO's etc.
The internal procedure based on the requirements of ISO 17065: 2012 establishes the system for receiving, evaluating, and resolving complaints and appeals.
Executive summary of the procedure of Complaints and Appeals Management
Complaint and appeal should include:
The complaint and appeal shall be submitted within 30 days since the date of the case caused it.
The complaint shall be addressed to UCSL Director. UCSL Director shall register the statement, perform initial processing of the complaint within 10 working days of its receipt and notify the applicant hereof in written on the contact details specified in the complaint itself.
The decision on the complaint shall be taken within 3 months of receiving a complaint. If the complainant is also considered through the objections process, the 3-month timeframe may be deferred till the completion of the objections process.
The complainants have the opportunity for formal disputes to be evaluated by the Appeal Panel. The Appeal Panel is impartial and independent from the audit evaluation and certification decision of the client.
Within 3 months of receipt of the appeal accepted for processing AP shall take a decision.
AP's decisions shall not lead to discriminative impacts on a complainant.
Decisions taken by AP shall be handed over to the parties having participated in the investigation within 5 days of the date of the decision.
If any party has not been satisfied with the AP's decision, any stakeholder participating in the consideration of the dispute may submit a petition on consideration of this dispute directly with the highest instance.
UCSL shall keep a record of formal disputes, actions taken, and the effectiveness of these actions
- the complainant's name and contact details
- specifies the appeal's subject;
- determines the potential parties of the conflict;
- describes the complainant's participation in the cases which have preceded the application and have led to the submitting of the complaint to UCSL;
- provides the decision.
The complaint and appeal shall be submitted within 30 days since the date of the case caused it.
The complaint shall be addressed to UCSL Director. UCSL Director shall register the statement, perform initial processing of the complaint within 10 working days of its receipt and notify the applicant hereof in written on the contact details specified in the complaint itself.
The decision on the complaint shall be taken within 3 months of receiving a complaint. If the complainant is also considered through the objections process, the 3-month timeframe may be deferred till the completion of the objections process.
The complainants have the opportunity for formal disputes to be evaluated by the Appeal Panel. The Appeal Panel is impartial and independent from the audit evaluation and certification decision of the client.
Within 3 months of receipt of the appeal accepted for processing AP shall take a decision.
AP's decisions shall not lead to discriminative impacts on a complainant.
Decisions taken by AP shall be handed over to the parties having participated in the investigation within 5 days of the date of the decision.
If any party has not been satisfied with the AP's decision, any stakeholder participating in the consideration of the dispute may submit a petition on consideration of this dispute directly with the highest instance.
UCSL shall keep a record of formal disputes, actions taken, and the effectiveness of these actions
Results of review
In this section UCSL will publish results of investigation of complaints and appeals, submitted and reviewed in accordance with the relevant procedure.