Big name brands shamed by campaigners
Dec
5
Written by:
05/12/2011 14:54
Workers' rights abuses at Chinese toy factories
An undercover investigation by Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) has revealed the bleak realities of life in Chinese toy factories serving a market worth £2.8bn a year in the UK alone.
Disney, Marks and Spencers and Lego were said to pay only a fraction of the shop price of products to the factories that made their toys and this had disasterous impacts for workers.
Last summer – as factories geared up to cope with demand for the Christmas period – investigators spent three weeks in the industrial cities of Shenzhen and Dongguan. In some cases, they found that employees:
worked up to 140 hours overtime a month;
were paid up to a month late;
claimed they were expected to work with dangerous tools and machines without training or safety measures;
had to work in silence and were fined up to £5 for going to the toilet without permission.
Investigators targeted three factories, including On Tai Toys Company (which manufactured for Disney and a number of other international brands) and Hung Hing. The factories investigated are certified by the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI), which is supposed to police ethical standards in more than 2,400 factories that employed an estimated 1.7 million people worldwide. Sacom has accused ICTI of permitting "rampant labour rights violations" in factories it certified.
In one factory, the researchers found workers carried out up to 140 hours of overtime every month, nearly four times the 36 hours a month legal limit.
Basic pay was £110 a month, but wages were paid a month late, in breach of labour law. During the peak summer season workers could make up to £240 a month, including overtime, but that fell to £140 during low season.
A typical working day during the peak season started at 8am and did not end until 10pm. Workers routinely worked six-day weeks, but if the factory was busy there were no days off.
Workers complained that they were banned from talking to one another on the production line and were fined up to £5 if they went to the toilet without applying for an "off-duty" permit. They reported regular burns from soldering irons and electric shocks from old hair dryers used to set glue, They also raised concerns about the effect on their health of the unmarked chemicals they had to work with. The law required the chemicals to be identified and for workers to be instructed in what to do in case of an accident.
Workers also cited problems with living conditions. Up to 10 workers shared each 20 square metres dormitory room, which was fitted with bunk beds. Dozens shared the toilet and the outside of the building was piled deep with rubbish,and infested with rats.
In a second factory, researchers found that the 8,000 workers put in up to 100 hours of overtime a month, far in excess of the legal maximum. Workers say they have to sign a document agreeing to work additional overtime on top of the legal maximum. The basic wage was £132 a month (up to £250 with maximum overtime payments) but wages were paid up to three weeks late.
Workers complained of inadequate training with the factory machines and last year one worker died when he fell into a machine. They said there were frequent injuries and concerns over the chemicals used. There were also complaints about the standard of the dormitories, where water for washing and flushing toilets was turned off at 10pm.
In response to the Sacom researchers' allegations, Disney said: "The Walt Disney Company and its affiliates take claims of unfair labour practices very seriously, and investigate any such allegations thoroughly."
A spokesman for Marks & Spencer said: "We are a very small customer of the Hung Hing Printing Group – less than 0.5% of its business. We take any allegation that suggests a breach of our strict ethical standards very seriously and work closely with all our suppliers, including this factory, to ensure they adhere to our strict standards."
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