SAI

Advancing Human Rights at Work

Social Accountability Accreditation Services (SAAS)

Details on SA8000 Certification Body suspensions in India

by

As of Monday, December 5, 2022, SAAS had suspended the India accreditation scope of four SA8000 Certification Bodies (CB). This is the result of findings from SAAS surveillance visits undertaken following allegations of conflicts of interest between auditors, consultants, and certified organizations. See additional updates below regarding actions and lifted suspensions.

The affected CBs are Bureau Veritas Certification, RINA, SGS, and TUV Rheinland.

What does this mean for the Certification Bodies?

  1. (Updated June 12, 2023): RINA suspension is lifted. No SAAS-accredited CBs remain suspended in India related to this activity.
  2. (Updated April 20, 2023): TUV Rheinland suspension is lifted. The remaining 1 CB, listed above, remain partially suspended while undertaking actions to address nonconformities.
  3. (Updated April 14, 2023): SGS suspension is lifted. The remaining 2 CBs, listed above, remain partially suspended while undertaking actions to address nonconformities.
  4. (Updated April 10, 2023): Bureau Veritas Certification suspension is lifted. The remaining three CBs, listed above, remain partially suspended while undertaking actions to address nonconformities.
  5. (Updated March 29, 2023): The four suspended CBs are currently undertaking actions to address nonconformities raised during SAAS surveillance visits. Following initial steps undertaken, as of February 10, 2023, SAAS has authorized the involved CBs to undertake audits of clients already certified to SA8000 in India. Until such time as actions (see 3 below) have been verified by SAAS to be effective-in-practice, the four suspended CBs are not authorized to enter into new SA8000 certification contracts or undertake initial certification audits in India.
  6. (December 5, 2022): The four suspended CBs must temporarily cease all SA8000 activities in India by December 19, 2022. Each CB will have its suspension lifted upon taking appropriate corrective actions addressing findings of non-conformity. For all CBs, this includes taking steps to ensure that their SA8000 staff and auditors are able to effectively distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate consultant-client relationships. The suspensions apply only to their India operations—all four may continue SA8000 activities outside of India in accordance with their respective scopes of accreditation.

You may check the current accreditation status for all SA8000 CBs on our list of accredited CBs.

What does this mean for SA8000-certified organizations in India?

Organizations certified by these CBs in India will maintain their certification status in the near term. This may change if a CB’s suspension causes their clients to miss mandatory audits. SAI and SAAS will work with the CBs to avoid this situation if possible and to make alternate arrangements for certified organizations should this become necessary.

SA8000-certified organizations should expect additional due diligence from their respective CBs.

You may use the SA8000 search tool to check the current SA8000 certification status for a given organization.

SAI and SAAS will continue to provide updates on the situation to stakeholders and the public as relevant. Please contact SA8000@sa-intl.org with any inquiries.