Three nations dominate social accountability list

Nearly half the facilities which received Social Accountability 8000 (SA 8000) certification were from Italy , China and India, according to data released at a in an workshop on 'Social Accountability "" 8000' jointly organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

Out of 430 SA 8000 certified facilities across 44 industries and 40 countries, 107 were from Italy, 55 from India and 53 from China. United States (US) had only two facilities with the certificate.

"US does not believe in any third party assessment of social accountability though companies are transparent and encourage checks in case of any doubt", said K P Nyati, head, environment management division of CII said.

K T Ramakrishnan, managing director of Registro Italiano Navale (RINA), said, "We are trying to convince the US companies through Social Accountability International (SAI) to go for SA 8000 certification".

The certification would protect businesses as SA 8000 dealt with specific requirements that enabled a company to develop, maintain and enforce policies and procedures in order to manage important issues regarding child labour, forced labour, health and safety, freedom of association and right to collective bargaining, discrimination, working hours, remuneration and primarily management system.

"For maintaining standards , auditors pay surprise visits to facilities that have received SA 8000 certificates. There has been around 35 cases in China where certificate has been cancelled due to malpractice", said Ramakrishnan.