“Kleine Hände – großer Profit”

On June 12, 2017, the book “Kleine Hände – Großer Profit” by Benjamin Pütter has been published. The presentation of the work of XertifiX in the book makes it necessary to provide explanatory remarks:

It is the great merit of Pütter that he initiated and founded XertifiX with others. As a long-term honorary manager, he has done a tremendous amount of work and contributed significantly to the fact that the subject of child labor in the natural stone industry became known to the German public. By way of XertifiX in the first few years, child labor in the Indian natural stone industry has been significantly combated.

With the change of CEO and first chairman and the changed requirements for seals, however, XertifiX has also undergone a change in understanding that it is not enough to issue a seal in which there is no child labor but inhuman working conditions, e.g.

  • the adult workers must work seven days without a break,
  • work safety is not respected, so that there are regularly injuries, life-threatening or fatal accidents,
  • the workers are not given personal protective equipment so that they become deaf or are dying early
  • basic environmental protection measures are disregarded.


For these reasons, starting in 2012, successively there have been

  • the XertifiX standard developed
  • the supervision of audits and reporting professionalized
  • the requirements for the award of the XertifiX standard seal in total increased, which led additionally to the introduction of the PLUS seal.

The character and essence of XertifiX have fundamentally changed as a result of this and because of the work started in China and Vietnam. The requirements for the auditors and the team of XertifiX today are entirely different from the start of XertifiX. Today, there are international requirements, which require serious certifiers such as XertifiX. From this it can be seen:

  • The work of XertifiX in its present form does not have much in common with the image of XertifiX drawn in the book “Small Hands – Big Profit”.
  • The book should be read historically to gain a good impression of the roots of XertifiX.

If you pay attention to this, reading the very interesting book “Kleine Hände – Großer Profit” is recommended.

Hannover, 12th June 2017
The Board of XertifiX e.V.