The GWO Audit & Compliance Committee provides an independent appraisal and compliance function.
Its primary focus is to ensure the adequacy and effectiveness of the GWO certification process as adopted and used by third party accredited certification bodies. The GWO Audit & Compliance committee also supports the GWO Steering Committee, to discharge its overall responsibilities and to deliver a robust framework enabling the certification process for Training Providers. The final key responsibility of the GWO Audit & Compliance committee is to handle complaints and non-conformities.
You can read the Audit & Compliance Charter here.
This Code of Conduct defines the basic requirements placed by the GWO Steering Committee on the GWO’s Secretariat concerning their responsibilities towards employees, colleagues, delegates, members, training providers, other stakeholders and the environment.
These requirements reflect also GWO's expectations towards our primary stakeholders (Members, Certified Training Providers and Certification Bodies).
Global Wind Organisation reserves the right to reasonably change the requirements of this Code of Conduct. In such event, GWO expects its stakeholders to accept such reasonable changes.
The basic requirements are as follows:
- to comply with the laws of the applicable legal systems.
- to take responsibility for the health and safety of its employees;
- to control hazards and take the best reasonably possible precautionary measures against accidents and occupational diseases;
- to provide training and ensure that employees are educated in relevant health and safety issues;
- to set up or use a reasonable occupational health & safety management system.
- to tolerate no form of and not to engage directly or indirectly in any form of corruption or bribery and not to grant, offer or promise anything of value to a government official or to a counterparty in the private sector to influence official action or obtain an improper advantage.
- to act in accordance with national and international competition laws and not to participate in price fixing, market or customer allocation, market sharing or bid rigging with competitors;
- to respect the intellectual property rights of others.
- to avoid all conflicts of interest that may adversely influence business relationships.
- to promote equal opportunities for and treatment of its employees and Delegates irrespective of skin color, race, nationality, social background, disabilities, sexual orientation, political or religious conviction, sex or age;
- to respect the personal dignity, privacy and rights of each individual;
- to refuse to employ or make anyone work against their will;
- to refuse to tolerate any unacceptable treatment of employees, such as mental cruelty, sexual harassment or discrimination;
- to prohibit behavior including gestures, language and physical contact, that is sexual, coercive, threatening, abusive or exploitative;
- to provide fair remuneration and to guarantee the applicable national statutory minimum wage;
- to comply with the maximum number of working hours laid down in the applicable laws;
- to recognize, as far as legally possible, the right of free association of employees and to neither favor nor discriminate against members of employee organizations or trade unions.
- to employ no workers under the age of 15 or, in those countries subject to the developing country exception of the ILO Convention 138, to employ no workers under the age of 14.
- to act in accordance with the applicable statutory and international standards regarding environmental protection;
- to minimize environmental pollution and make continuous improvements in environmental protection;
- to use reasonable efforts to promote among its suppliers’ compliance with this Code of Conduct;
- to comply with the principles of non-discrimination with regard to supplier selection and treatment.
- GWO Competition Compliance Guidelines – detailed guidelines for competition compliance regulating behavior of secretariat staff and other individuals participating in GWO committees or working groups
- Criteria for Training Providers – setting out further requirements for management systems and competences of Training Providers
- The GWO training standards – set further requirements for competences of Training Providers
- Criteria for Certification bodies – setting further criteria for Certification Bodies
Download PDF: GWO Code of Conduct
The GWO Audit & Compliance function ensures the adequacy and effectiveness of our certification framework.
The GWO Audit & Compliance Committee is responsible for this function, delivering amongst others:
Complaints, non-compliance issues and questions relating to the interpretation of GWO standards and criteria are brought before the GWO Audit & Compliance Committee for investigation and resolution.
If you have a specific complaint or wish to file a report of non-compliance with GWO standards or criteria, please file a report with GWO or click on the link in the left hand menu
Resolution:
The GWO Audit and Compliance Committee investigated and submitted a training provider to full re-audit. Several factors contributed to the request.
Background:
A GWO investigation was initiated following an incident in which a delegate suffered a minor hand injury during a Sea Survival course while practising the use of flares. The investigation was initiated upon request of the injured party’s employer.
Resolution:
The GWO Audit and Compliance Committee investigated an incident resulting in a request for re-audit and certification of the training provider.
Background:
GWO was informed of an incident at a GWO certified Training Provider that included a Delegate falling from approximately 6 meters height during a Working at Heights rescue exercise.Download the full report
Resolution:
The Training Provider must determine if the delegate is able to participate at the level of training that is provided and is required to stop if the delegate performs unsafe training. GWO does not set any requirements for interpreters
Background:
A company asked a UK Training Provider to train a Delegate from Spain with a poor level of English.
Resolution:
If a delegate does not wish to register in WINDA, they are free to do so. However, the Training Provider can reject the delegate or complete the training and not issue a GWO certificate on paper or upload a WINDA record.
Background:
A Certification Body issued a non-conformity to a training provider as a delegate did not wish to be registered in WINDA and the training provider was therefore unable to register the delegate’s record in WINDA.
Resolution:
A certificate can be transferred from one Certification Body to another in the certificate life cycle. The new Certification Body will have to comply with all requriements in the Criteria for Certifcation Bodies. As a minimum, surveillance audits must be conducted in connection with the certificate transfer and all requried subesequent surveillance audits are the responsibility of the new Certification Body.
Background:
A Training Provider already certified by another Certification Body held a valid certificate but wished to switch Certification Bodies during the existing three year certification life cycle.
Resolution:
The training provider is proposed to perform internal audit and management review directly after delivery of the first witnessed training module.
Background:
A training provider in the process of being certified for the first time received non-conformances for not having carried out internal audits and management review prior the certification.
Resolution:
Confirmation that issue was subject to national legislation which can set higher requirements and accept of bridge proposal
Background:
A Training Provider in the process of establishing a training center in China, requested a decision from the Committee as Chinese legislation required that the trainer in First Aid had a medical background.
The training provider proposed to use two trainers in the course, one with a medical background and one who complied with all requirements in the training standard to bridge the gap.
The Audit & Compliance Committee found that the situation constituted an instance where local legal legislation set higher requirements than the standard and the training provider's proposal to bridge the gap was acceptable.
Resolution:
The Committee confirmed that training providers offering courses shorter than recommended by the training standard constituted non-compliance. All Training Providers took corrective action.
Background:
The GWO secretariat was informed that a number of GWO certified Training Providers marketed their business as capable of offering all five BST modules in a period shorter than stated in the standard.
The Training Providers were therefore notified that they were in non-compliance with the training standards. The Training Providers took corrective actions and ceased to offer a full 5 day BST.
As a responsible organisation, GWO is committed to achieving and maintaining the trust of its stakeholders. Integral to this mission is providing a robust security and privacy program that carefully considers data protection matters across our suite of services, including data submitted by Stakeholders to our services (“Customer Data”).
In support of this mission, GWO has published details of the steps it has taken to meet the requirements of the European Union General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
Please click on the following links to view our documentation
For additional information on how WINDA's data protection policies operate, please visit this page.
Global Wind Organisation is committed to handling all formal complaints in a fair and timely manner. All formal complaints and non-compliance reports will be used as an opportunity for improvements to GWO.
If you have a complaint relating to your training course, please contact the GWO certified Training Provider first to allow them to investigate under their own complaints procedures and resolve the issue. If you are not able to resolve the problem, please let us know.
All complaints received by Global Wind Organisation are managed in accordance with the following procedure:
Please provide all documentary evidence of the complaint or non-compliance and any communication you have had with the party you are filing the complaint against.
To make a complaint please send an e-mail with all relevant information to feedback@globalwindsafety.org.
This complaints policy meets the requirements of the ISO 9001 Clause 8.2.1.
