Audit, Findings, and Remediation
Near Miss
An incident that could have caused serious harm or escalation but was stopped before the worst outcome happened.
Definition
A near miss is an early-warning event. Examples include a blocked fire exit discovered before an evacuation is needed, an unsafe machine guard caught before an injury, or a recruitment-control breakdown identified before workers are charged fees.
The value of a near miss is that it reveals a weak control before the harm becomes obvious, which makes it useful for prevention-focused review.
How this source informs this section
SA8000 Overview
SA8000's management-system framing supports treating prevention signals and incident controls as part of sustained labor-performance management.
Why it matters
Programs that track near misses can see patterns earlier than programs that wait only for confirmed incidents, severe findings, or worker injury.
This helps teams prioritize sites where the controls look unstable even if the latest audit score is still clean.
How this source informs this section
OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct
OECD due-diligence guidance supports using early-warning information to decide where attention and intervention should move first.
Nuance
A near miss should not be treated as 'nothing happened.' The point is that something almost happened, which usually means the prevention system is thinner than it appears.
The best use of near-miss data is to connect it to root-cause analysis and repeat-risk review rather than logging it and moving on.
How this source informs this section
OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct
The guidance reinforces that the operational value comes from acting on risk information, not just collecting it.
Sources
OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct
OECD · guidance
OECD's core guidance on how companies identify risk, prioritize, respond, track follow-up, and communicate what changed.
SA8000 Overview
Social Accountability International · standard overview
Used here for the management-system framing behind sustained labor compliance, review, and continuous improvement.
