Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Artistic Toy Undue Influence Statement of Policy

STATEMENT OF POLICY

Our company has various responsibilities under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) for ensuring children’s products meet the requirements of the CPSIA.
Testing and certification of children’s products are important parts of the process of compliance. By law, we must not apply undue influence on what the law calls “third party conformity assessment bodies” which are the testing laboratories we use to conduct the testing of those children’s products, to produce favorable testing results for us.
The law does not provide a definition of “undue influence.” It is our company’s policy that any action or statement that undermines the credibility and validity of the testing process used for the certification of children’s products is undue influence. If you have any doubt, report it.
All reported incidents of possible undue influence will be promptly and fully investigated.

TRAINING

It is our company’s policy that we will train all employees who interact with testing laboratories to make certain no one engages in actions or makes statements that will be considered undue influence. If we change our undue influence policy, we are committed to retraining all employees regarding those changes.  In accordance with the requirements imposed upon us by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), all employees who are trained will be required to sign a statement attesting to their training attendance.

PROCEDURE


If you witness or are aware of what you believe is an incident of undue influence, it is your responsibility to report it.  Every effort will be made to keep a report confidential, but remember, all of us have the responsibility to report undue influence, even though it may be difficult or uncomfortable to do so. Further, be assured, we will not tolerate any retaliation against you for reporting any incident or participating or cooperating with any investigation of an undue influence report.  You should report it to your immediate supervisor. If you are uncomfortable with reporting it to your supervisor for whatever reason (for example, that supervisor is involved in the incident of possible undue influence), Betsy Socci, Owner, bsocci@artistictoy.com is the designated individual in our company for investigating any undue influence. You may also report an incident to any officer of the company if you feel that is the best course of action.

Don't let Product Safety Be Your 800 lb Gorilla

·       Artistic Toy is Safety Testing Guaranteed!   Don't ignore the 800 lb Gorilla in the room with your client.  See recorded webinar below  and our Supplier Product Safety Checklist to earn your PPAI Aware designation.  (1.0 MAS)  





Join Jim Socci Artistic Toy President on Wednesday, May 28, 2014 at 2pm EDT for a 60 minute webinar to help improve communication on product safety and share best practices.

Register here for replay of PPAI Webinar:  CPSIA Supplier - Distributor Communication
http://eo2.commpartners.com/users/ppa/session.php?id=13145

Direct Download:
http://eventcenter.commpartners.com/se/Meetings/Playback.aspx?meeting.id=313221

Product Safety Checklist



        There are 4 required elements/courses that make up the PPAI Product Safety Aware program - 3 specific courses and 1 elective. Your course qualifies as an elective. The other 3 elements/courses must be taken by all participants and there cannot be any substitution for those 3 elements/courses whereas electives are just that – a participant can choose from any of our corporate responsibility courses for their own elective.

·         Once a person completes the program the individual becomes a Product Safety Aware Ambassador and their company is then recognized with the Product Safety Aware designation