Social Accountability Accreditation Services (SAAS)As of Monday, December 5, 2022, SAAS has 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.
The affected CBs are Bureau Veritas Certification, RINA, SGS, and TUV Rheinland.
What does this mean for the Certification Bodies?
- 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 [email protected] with any inquiries.
