Introduction

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) expects  to generate at least GBP 86 million from sales of “London 2012” merchandise. Among the merchandise, the majority of products feature the official mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville, and the Team GB mascot, Pride-the-Lion.

In 2008, LOCOG issued sustainable and ethical sourcing codes with the aim of ensuring that  all products associated with LOCOG are produced under internationally acceptable social standards. In terms of labour practices, the codes refer to the provisions of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code which spells out that workers should receive at least the minimum wage as specified in their national legal standards and have a contract defining their terms of employment and payment. The ETI Code also states that punitive fines are prohibited and that working hours should not be excessive. Regrettably, LOCOG has not issued any lists detailing the firms that supply goods to the licensees. Moreover, there have been no reports on the levels of compliance with the code by these suppliers. Consumers are kept in the dark about the conditions in which the goods are produced.

In summer and autumn 2011, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) investigated the Yancheng Rainbow Arts and Crafts Company, a manufacturer of Wenlock, Mandeville and Pride-the-Lion goods in Dafeng City, China. The factory is also a supplier to Disney. This investigation revealed numerous violations of workers’ rights violations in the Rainbow Factory, which puts it far outside the promises of the code. The following are the major labour rights violations found in the factory:

- Workers are told to tell lies to the auditors during factory inspections.

- No labour contract is given to workers.

- The factory does not pay a basic salary to workers.

- Workers do not know about the piece rate before production.

- Overtime premium is not paid in accordance with legal standards.

- Sewing workers have muscle fatigue, due to the repetitive work, and cloth-cutting workers have to stand during the whole day.

- No paid maternity leave for workers.

“The quality control of Olympic products is demanding. It is very difficult to produce the mascots. There cannot be any flaws. Although they are Olympic products, the unit price is lower than for other products. I am not proud of making the mascots at all,” explained one sewing worker. According to the workers, the Olympic products were to be sent to the British companies, Golden Bear and John Lewis. It is disappointing that the client puts so much effort into quality control of the products but turns a blind eye to the labour rights violations. The Rainbow Factory is a primary labour rights violator and Golden Bear and John Lewis failed to examine the working conditions at their supplier. Nevertheless, LOCOG cannot evade its responsibility for enforcing its own sustainable and ethical sourcing codes.

SACOM’s Demands to LOCOG and IOC

The rampant labour rights violations in the Rainbow Factory demonstrate that, at present, the sustainable and ethical sourcing codes are nothing more than pieces of paper. In line with its proclaimed goal of respecting labour rights, LOCOG should:

- publish the full list of suppliers to its license holders;

- conduct selective investigations at the licensees’ suppliers to examine the level of compliance and publicise the reports; and

- work with the licensees to launch remedial actions in any factory where rights violations are found.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should establish a policy to prevent violation of labour rights at the suppliers of Olympic products. On top of the demands for disclosure of supplier lists and selective audits at the licensee suppliers, SACOM further demands that the IOC should:

- adopt a code of conduct for the suppliers which should include terms like living wages, freedom of association and the right to remedy; and

- require the licensees to ensure that every worker, at every supplier, receives a copy of this code.

The full report is available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/79021678/2012-01-23-LOCOG-s-Empty-Promoise.

Hong Kong, 9 January 2012

In the time of globalization, the international toy brands aim to maximize their revenue and minimize their responsibilities by contracting out the production to the manufacturers in China and other developing countries. As the Asian largest toys fair, the Hong Kong Toys & Games Fair is held to facilitate the exploitation of the brands and the retailers. While the buyers are interested in good quality products with cheap price, labour rights are always sacrificed. Although the brands, like Disney and Mattel, claim they have their respective code of conduct and will only source from the factories which participate in the certification programme of the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI), rampant labour rights violations are widespread. These prove the codes of brands and the certification system by ICTI are bogus. As such, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) has to voice out the grievances of the workers in the Toys Fair.

When consumers buy toys, they cannot imagine the toy workers in China, who make over 70% of the world’s toys, are toiling in coastal sweatshops in Mainland China. Since 2005, SACOM has been monitoring the working conditions in toy industry in China. Unfortunately, there is no significant improvement in working conditions in the industry. In 2011 summer, SACOM investigated 3 toy factories, namely Dongguan On Tai Toys Co. Ltd., Sturdy Products Factory and Hung Hing Printing Group Ltd., which are suppliers to renowned global companies, including Disney, Mattel, Lego, McDonald’s, Marks & Spencer and Walmart. The 3 factories have been certified by ICTI CARE Foundation. Disappointingly, labour rights violations remain blatant. For example, workers have overtime work up to 140 hours a month in peak season; the wages are paid one month in arrears; no copy of labour contract; negligence in occupational health and safety; a lack of social insurance; denial of the right to freedom of association, etc. Yet, these are not barriers for the factories to receive a certificate from ICTI CARE. Apparently, ICTI CARE Process is a shield of labour rights violations. In response to the structural problems in the toy industries, ICTI CARE only puts the blame on the factories and never criticizes the brands which turn a blind eye to the problems at their suppliers.

Despite of the failure of the certification system, better audit is not a solution to the exploitations of the toy workers. Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce of China indicate that the average unit price of the export toys was USD 0.65 in 2010. The unit price further diminished to USD 0.52 in the first 7 months in 2011. The labour cost is just a small part of it. Therefore, the hardship of workers can only be alleviated if the brands, like Disney and Mattel, commit to raise the unit price at their suppliers. Equally important, workers should have the right to form genuine unions through democratic elections. In addition, the brands should increase transparency by releasing reports to show the level of compliance of labour rights at their suppliers, and provide remedies to victims when violations are found.

]]> http://sacom.hk/archives/915/feed http://sacom.hk/archives/913 http://sacom.hk/archives/913#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 07:21:33 +0000 admin http://sacom.hk/?p=913
•       BY FABIEN SOYEZ Beyblade spinning tops, Zhu Zhu Pets and remote-controlled Cars 2 cars are this year’s star Christmas toys. But behind the scenes little Christmas cheer surrounds the production of these toys, in an industry that’s worth $80 billion a year globally. Now a report on working conditions in the toy industry in [...]]]>

•       BY FABIEN SOYEZ

Beyblade spinning tops, Zhu Zhu Pets and remote-controlled Cars 2 cars are this year’s star Christmas toys. But behind the scenes little Christmas cheer surrounds the production of these toys, in an industry that’s worth $80 billion a year globally. Now a report on working conditions in the toy industry in China has comes down hard on industry leaders Disney and Mattel.

Between May and October, which represents the busy season for toy factories, a group of academics based in Hong Kong, Sacom, and the organization China Labor Watch (CLW) conducted a thorough investigation into several sub-contractors of these multinationals.

Wages paid late, mandatory overtime, denial of rest days, the prohibiting of talking or going to the toilet, punitive fines, sexual discrimination, harassment: the investigation reveals an impressive list of abuses and violations of basic rights.

Three Barbies sold every second

The toy industry in China employs four million workers who produce 80% of the toys sold worldwide, and 90% of the toys imported into Europe. 4,000 Chinese factories work for subcontractors of Mattel and Disney. 70% of these factories are located near the coast of southern China, in the delta of the Pearl River. This area is regarded as a “special economic zone”, a sort of hinterland of Hong Kong.

Back in 2001, a report by the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (HKCIC) denounced the “hellish” working conditions there, pointing the figure of blame squarely at Hasbro, McDonald’s, Disney and Mattel. “Ten years later, nothing has really changed, despite some minor improvements,” laments Debby Chan, project manager at Sacom.

Each year, the world’s leading toy manufacturer Mattel sells millions of Barbie dolls (three per second), 80% of which are made in China. At Sturdy Products in Shenzhen, they manufacture Hot Wheels toy cars. At this factory, denounced by Sacom in 2007, some 6,000 workers work flat out, 12 hours a day, six days a week, for staggeringly low wages. According to Sacom:

Wages are kept at extremely low levels, due to production quotas that are almost impossible to complete.

At the factory, which in 2010 exported more than $30 million worth of toys, the workers receive €154 per month, the minimum wage. By working overtime they can expect to reach €327 each month. To achieve this, the legal maximum of 36 hours overtime per month is regularly exceeded. Last summer employees of Sturdy Products worked between 100 and 120 hours of overtime per month, as evidenced by payroll receipts obtained by Sacom.

Some workers claim they were pressured when they were initially hired to sign a document committing them to work beyond the legal overtime maximum. Debby Chan of Sacom describes “undignified” working conditions that are close to “hell”:

The workers, mostly women, are constantly harassed and insulted by their bosses. Production quota are excessive, they require them to produce a lot in a short time. There is serious negligence in terms of health and safety. The workers use hazardous chemical products, thinners, adhesives, lead. Surgical masks are provided to them, but they are ineffective in protecting them from toxic fumes. Recently, two workers had to be hospitalized, but have received no compensation from their employers.

According to the NGO’s survey, the Shenzhen factory employed many children between the ages of 14 and 15. In May 2011, Nianzhen Hu, a factory worker, committed suicide by jumping from the sixth floor of the factory. According to her family, she was often “reprimanded” by management “because she was not efficient enough”. She had been ordered, as punishment, not to come to work.

Ineffective audits

Since 2006, the plant has regularly received a “seal of compliance” from the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI). For ten years, the ICTI has conducted social audits of over 2,400 Chinese factories. Designed to “promote ethical manufacturing”, the “care process” of the ICTI is based on a “code of business practices” imposed on subcontractors to multinational members, such as Mattel, which prohibits child labor and issues a series of “rules of good conduct” to be respected: “a safe working environment”, “emergency medical assistance”, sick leave, etc..

Marie-Claude Hessler, a former lawyer for Amnesty International, is a minority shareholder of Mattel. She views the audits of the ICTI as “smoke and mirrors.”

Inspectors from the ICTI come from Europe or the United States, without any real knowledge of the local environment. They are very easy to fool. And when the Federation uses external audit companies, factories regularly complain about the corruption of inspectors, who they claim demand money in return for a seal of compliance.

Feng Yu, 21, spent three years working in a number of toy factories in Shenzhen. “Before the inspections, we would gather in a room, and they would explain to us the questions that they would ask us, and especially what to reply to the inspectors.” At Sturdy Products, Sacom has even reported cases of workers being paid to lie during audits. Debby Chan is under no illusion:

In reality, factory managers are informed in advance of the arrival of the inspectors, so they have time to do some spring cleaning – to hide the chemical products, to send home the children, to manufacture some fake employment contracts and false pay slips. It’s all a production that is set up to deceive the inspectors.

Ms. Hessler deplores the attitude of Mattel and other toy giants such as Disney, who “rely more and more on ICTI audits, instead of conducting their own audits.” In 1997, Mattel set up a unit of independent experts, who visited factories every three years, enforcing the code of conduct of the company. “At the time, the company had a CEO who was a bit ahead of his time, but since he has been replaced, Mattel has disbanded this independent commission and hidden behind the ICTI, confining themselves to publishing the reports of the Federation from time to time,” adds Marie-Claude Hessler. “For the toy industry, audits will continue to remain ineffective..the benefits are too great.”

Questioned by OWNI, the president of the ICTI, Christian Ewert, rejects this description. “The purpose of our code of business practices is to ensure fair treatment of workers in toy factories around the world. When a factory does not adhere to the code, we ensure that it fixes the problem. Our inspections are of a high quality.” He fires back at Sacom:

Sacom is really not open to the ICTI Care Process. In recent years it has continued to criticize us, never giving us credit for our actions, and refusing to meet us. We are open to dialogue, however. We accept the investigations of NGO’s, and act as soon as the results of these investigations are communicated to us, or when a worker contacts usto complain about their factory. Our work takes place over time, it takes time, and every year things are getting better and better.

30 hours of uninterrupted work

Also singled out in the report are the Walt Disney Company. At Sturdy Products, the Chinese workers produce the popular Lightning McQueen toy, hero of the film Cars. In its latest report, Sacom also examines the situation at On Tai Toys and Hung Hing Printing, two factories nestled in the delta of the Pearl River. Every winter these factories produce Buzz Lightyear action figures and Disney coloring books, while workers endure 12 to 14 hour days in dangerous conditions.

In the factory of Tai Toys, workers handle poorly labeled chemical products without the correct protective gloves or masks. They sleep in the factory, in tiny dormitories overrun by rats and insects. €40 is deducted from workers’ wages each month to cover meals and board. At Hung Hing injuries are common, and wages are often paid three weeks or a month late.

OWNI contacted the various factories which are the focus of the report. At On Tai Toys, “we do not respond to reporters,” was the sober response of a factory manager. At Sturdy Products, Damon Chan, one of the managers of the factory, requested some time before answering (OWNI is still waiting for his answer), but indicated that “Sturdy Products take this case very seriously.”

The only real reaction came from the Director General of the Hung Hing Printing Group, Dennis Wong. He justified exceeding the legal limits on overtime because the basic wages of workers “are not enough to live on.” According to him “the workers can not earn more than 154 euros a month, so they need those extra hours.” Between June and October, during the peak season, employees at Hung Hing worked up to 100 hours a month, some working up to 30 uninterrupted hours, simply to “fulfill an order deadline.”

Original link of the feature: http://owni.eu/2011/12/21/christmas-brought-to-you-by-chinese-slave-labor-mattel-disney-china/

Some 80% of the world’s toys are manufactured in China. (ČTK)

Prague, Dec 15 (CTK) - The Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) organisation, based in Hong Kong, and its Czech partner NaZemi group yesterday presented their campaign against violation of labour rights of Chinese workers making toys for the world’s biggest toy companies.

The organisers of the campaign pointed out that buyers have no chance to show that they are against the bad working conditions by the selection of toys they buy. The organisers therefore call on the buyers to join their campaign on their website.

Some 80 percent of the world toy production comes from China. According to SACOM, the lower production costs are achieved by too long working hours and compulsory overtime work, low salaries and their belated payment.

Debby Chan, from SACOM, said Chinese toy workers are forced to work up to 140 hours overtime a month at the peak of the production season. Their life is nothing else than work and sleep, she added.

Yang Yu, who worked in Chinese toy and electronics factories for five years, said she had to work up to 12 hours a day and six days a week.

She said many of the factory workers came from faraway villages and they can visit their families only once a year during Chinese New Year.

Yang Yu said living and hygienic conditions were very bad. She shared a room with eight other workers and sometimes she had to wait an hour after her work ended to be able to wash, she said.

Her salary was so low that she could only pay for accommodation and food. During the top production season, she earned more money thanks to many overtime hours of work, Yang Yu said.

SACOM pointed to the risks workers face in the toy factories: they use glue, dyes, solvents and other dangerous substances without any protective equipment. Moreover, they may get injured while melting plastics.

If workers have disputes with the employer, there are no trade unions or other groups to back them and hazing at work is quite often, SACOM says.

SACOM has been monitoring working conditions in Chinese toy factories since 2005. Several months ago, SACOM checked three factories that are suppliers to Disney, Lego, McDonald’s and other global companies and concluded that all the factories violated fundamental labour rights in spite of being certified by ICTI CARE, a toy industry’s ethical manufacturing program.

In Guangdong province, where 70% of China’s toys are exported, migrant workers’ basic salary is around CNY 850-1320 (USD 134-208), actually the same as the statutory local minimum wage. And the minimum wage is barely enough for self-subsistence. Restricted by the meager pay, workers have to leave their children behind in their hometowns where they can only visit once a year during Chinese New Year, and for this family reunion, they cannot afford to buy what they produce as gifts for their children - not a Mattel’s Hot Wheels toy car, not a Disney storybook. The hardship of the workers is a consequence of the squeezing unit price in the global supply chain.

Rampant Labour Rights Violations in ICTI-certified Factories

Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) has been monitoring the working conditions in toy industry in China since 2005 and has sadly seen little real improvement in working conditions of the toy workers. In 2011 summer, SACOM investigated 3 toy factories, namely Dongguan On Tai Toys Co. Ltd., Sturdy Products Factory and Hung Hing Printing Group Ltd., which are suppliers to renowned global companies, including Disney, Mattel, Lego, McDonald’s, Marks and Spencer, and Walmart. All 3 factories have been certified by the ICTI CARE for several years already, however, after all the years of monitoring by the ICTI CARE, they are still violating fundamental labour rights. The ICTI CARE, again, has proved itself to be just a cover-up scheme for big companies’ exploitation of workers in China. The followings are some examples of labour rights abuses in On Tai, Sturdy Products and Hung Hing:

- work excessive overtime work up to 140 overtime hours a month, about 4 times the legal limit;

- wage always paid in arrears;

- denial of a copy of labour contract;

- denial of personal protective equipment and training leading to cases of occupational diseases and fatal accidents;

- illegal wage payment to workers under medical treatment for occupational diseases;

- denial of social insurance benefits;

- child workers in summer time;

- no fire drill;

- denial of workers’ right to freedom of association;

- harsh discipline and various arbitrary fines;

- unhygienic food where insects are found in the dish; and

- dirty dormitory frequented by rats.

ICTI CARE Makes Money by Helping Global Companies to Cover Rights Violations

ICTI CARE alleges that it aims to ensure safe and humane workplace environments for toy factory workers worldwide. Factories which pay various fees to the ICTI CARE and pass its audits are certified as decent factories with good labour practices. The charges are all levied on factories and not a single dime is required from the global brands and retailers which make it compulsory for their supplier factories to enrol in the ICTI CARE.

By making labour monitoring a free service for global brands, ICTI CARE has drawn support of 780 toy brands and companies worldwide, such as Mattel, Hasbro, Lego, Disney, Walmart, Toys R Us, Marks & Spencer, which agrees with the ICTI CARE that all their toy suppliers must be certified by the ICTI CARE. According to the ICTI CARE website, over 2420 factories have enrolled in the ICTI CARE Process in November 2011, representing a workforce of about 1.7 million.

Why so many global toy brands and retailers join ICTI CARE? The reasons are simple:

- It is free service. Not a single dime is charged to buying companies. No cost at all for toy brands and retailers.

- It is cost-saving. By putting the monitoring work to ICTI CARE, companies save time and efforts, and staff costs, because they do not need to monitor the toy supply chain by themselves.

- It is a risk-sharing mechanism. The more companies join, the easier it is for companies to comfort itself that others also have the same problems.

- It is a responsibility-shirking mechanism. When labour violations are exposed, brands and retailers can conveniently shirks its responsibility since they passed their labour monitoring work to the ICTI CARE.

- It covers up the labour rights violations for companies. The ICTI CARE is designed to be a non-transparent and secret-keeping mechanism. It has no accountability to the public, workers or civil society. It does not release any findings of labour rights violations in any company’s supply chain or in the global industry in general.

- It does not aim for structural change. Taking the squeezing purchasing model of the toy companies is a root cause of the labour rights violations. The ICTI CARE has never demanded the toy companies to raise the unit price when placing order.

The full report is available here: Making Toys without Joy .

by Gethin Chamberlain

Undercover investigation alleges hours of overtime, late wages and fines for using the toilet without permission

Workers in the Hung Hing factory, where the basic wage is £132 a month, put in up to 100 hours of overtime in that period

With Christmas three weeks away, an undercover investigation has revealed the bleak realities of life in Chinese toy factories serving a market worth £2.8bn a year in the UK alone.

Big brands such as Disney, Lego and Marks & Spencer pay only a fraction of the shop price of products to the factories that make their toys  [see footnote]. 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.

Perhaps the most insidious effect of the long hours and poor wages was how it tore families apart, separating mothers and fathers from their children for all but a few days a year. Many workers were too afraid to speak to the investigators from human rights group Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom), but two women did agree to talk on condition that their names were changed.

Wang Fengping, 27, has two daughters, seven and five. They live a 10-hour train journey away from the On Tai Toys factory. She and her husband earn £200 a month making toys for Disney and others, but cannot afford to bring the children to the city. Instead, the girls are cared for by their grandparents. Wang calls them two or three times a week. The younger one always asks her when she is coming home. “Very soon,” Wang always replies.

The reality is that they will meet only once a year, at Chinese new year. She keeps her spirits up by telling her workmates stories of how well the girls are doing at school. Sometimes she sings them songs the girls have learned at school and then sung to her down the phone. “Our family will not die from hunger, but cannot be fed with this wage level,” she said.

Ma Hui, 25, works for the Hung Hing Printing Group, making items for M&S, Lego and Disney. She has a two-year-old daughter, whom she had to leave behind when the child was just three months old in the hope that she could earn enough to one day return home to set up her own business and reunite the family. She, too, only sees her child once a year and has hung a picture of her daughter on the dormitory wall next to her bed.

Sacom accuses big global brands of failing to pay the factories enough, with workers suffering because factories undercut one another in an attempt to secure contracts. The report also criticises the industry’s own regulator for failing to clamp down on rights abuses.

Spokeswoman Debby Chan Sze Wan said: “In the run-up to Christmas, toys are a popular choice as presents for children. They probably bring joy to consumers and the toy companies, but the workers cannot afford toys or books for their beloved children.

“The hardship of workers is due to the exploitation in the global supply chain. If the brands do not raise the unit price and change their purchasing practices, no structural change in working conditions in the toy industry is feasible.”

Investigators targeted three factories, including On Tai Toys Company, which manufactures for Disney and a number of other international brands, and Hung Hing. All the factories are certified as decent toy manufacturers by the International Council of Toy Industries, which is supposed to police ethical standards in more than 2,400 factories that employ an estimated 1.7 million people worldwide. But Sacom has accused ICTI of permitting “rampant labour rights violations” in factories it has certified.

At the Hung Hing factory the researcher 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 is turned off at 10pm.

At the On Tai Toy Company the researcher found that most of the 1,500 workers were aged between 30 and 50, though around 300 students are drafted in to help cope with the peak season.

The researcher spent three weeks in the factory and found workers put in up to 140 hours of overtime every month, nearly four times the 36 hours a month legal limit.

Basic pay is £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 falls to £140 during low season.

A typical working day during the peak season starts at 8am and does not end until 10pm. Workers routinely put in six-day weeks, but if the factory is busy there are 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, along with concerns about the effect on their health of unmarked chemicals they have to work with. The law requires the chemicals to be identified and for workers to be instructed in what to do in case of an accident. Up to 10 workers share each 20 square metres dormitory room, which is fitted with bunk beds. Dozens share the toilet and the outside of the building is piled deep with rubbish, which is home to rats.

In response to the Sacam 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.”

Lego said the investigation into working practices at the factory had raised very serious issues, which it took very seriously and which it had asked its licensing partner, Dorling Kindersley, to investigate.

“Ensuring respect for workers’ rights is very important to the Lego Group and all our partners agree to adhere to a strict set of guidelines – our code of conduct. The Lego Group requires all of its licensing partners to give a written assurance that their vendors, too, comply with the Lego Group’s code of conduct, and to audit their suppliers on an annual basis. Adhering to the code of conduct is something that we prioritise in our engagement with our partners. It appears that in this case the code may have been broken and we are addressing this urgently. Once we have the full facts we will take decisive action.”

Dorling Kindersley said that it was deeply concerned by the allegations and had contacted Hung Hing to express its view: “We have strict ethical sourcing standards covering all the issues identified by this investigation. The allegations, if true, would demonstrate a breach of these standards.” It said the factory had recently been audited, but that would now be reviewed, adding: “Our terms of business are absolutely clear, that any supplier in breach of our ethical standards is required to change their practices or face termination.”

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.”

Hung Hing responded with a four- page letter from general manager Dennis Wong in which it admitted that workers could be asked to do overtime of up to 92 hours a month in July and August. The letter said that last month overtime ranged between 23 and 77 hours. The company said workers who refused to do the extra hours were not penalised.

It blamed late payment of wages on the complexity of calculating the rates for more than 8,000 workers, and argued this was a standard industry practice. It insisted that workers did receive safety training, but warned that individual managers would be held responsible for future lapses and would have pay deducted.

The company said that providing water to the toilets after 10pm was wasteful and that barrels of water were available for workers to use to flush.

Internal Audit & CSR Department

Citizen Holdings Co., Ltd.

6-1-12 Tanashi-cho

Nishitokyo

Tokyo 188-8511

Japan

Dear Sir / Madam,

Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) is a Hong Kong-based organization strives for labour rights in Mainland China. We are writing to express our concerns over the strike at your production facility, Astar Precision Co. Factory, in Shenzhen, China. Although some media reported that the strike was over in late October, a blog from Astar workers claimed they were forced to return to work with the strong presence of riot police. SACOM demands the management to have genuine dialogue with workers and ensure no worker will be retaliated for their rights-defending action.

Prior to the strike in Shenzhen, there was another strike in Citizen’s plant in Dongguan.

The strikes reveal there is an absence of effective communication system in the factory. SACOM is very disappointed that Citizen Holdings does not learn a lesson from the strike in Dongguan and address to the grievances of the workers in Shenzhen. To suppress the demands of workers, Citizen Holdings has asked the riot police to coerce workers to stop their actions. In fact, the workers in Astar are only striving for their basic entitlements. Any socially-responsible brand should resolve the problems without delay.

Until now, the courageous workers are still waiting for the response from Citizen Holdings. SACOM categorically supports the reasonable demands of the workers. The workers demand Astar:

- To compensate the deducted wages from 1 Oct 2005 to 31 Oct 2010 for the 40-minute recess;

- To pay the pension scheme for workers base on their actual salary;

- To remedy for the workers who are affected by the relocation plan of the factory in accordance with the legal standard; and

- To negotiate with the workers representatives on an equal footing. (The existing trade union is a bogus structure.)

SACOM strongly demands the Citizen Holdings can address the demands of the workers in a timely manner and stop further harassment to the workers on strike. Thank you for your attention!

Yours faithfully,

Debby Chan

Project Officer

SACOM

cc. Astar Precision Co. Ltd.

Sorry, this entry is only available in 簡体中文 and 繁體中文.

Sorry, this entry is only available in 簡体中文 and 繁體中文.

Today, Apple opens its flagship store at the International Finance Centre in Hong Kong. Despite Apple is the world’s most valuable brand, rampant labour rights violations are always found at its suppliers, including Foxconn and Wintek. Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) staged a protest to mark the opening of the Apple Store. Protesters unfolded a 6-meter tall banner to demand Apple to end labour exploitation.

Behind the fascinating Apple products, Apple is accused of rights abuses at its suppliers. In 2009, over 137 workers at Wintek, Suzhou were poisoned by n-hexane. A year later, at least 8 workers at Yun Heng Metal who polished the Apple logos also suffered from n-hexane poisoning. This year, an explosion happened at a Foxconn’s factory in Chengdu, a supplier of the iPad. Three workers were killed and 15 injured.

Regrettably, Apple only admitted the poisoning cases a year after the tragedies. Likewise, Apple has not given any public account of the cause of the explosion. Furthermore, there is no transparency in either company’s process of implementing remedies after the tragedy. SACOM’s action aimed to inform the consumers about the social cost behind Apple products. A Chinese leaflet, The Inconvenient Truth of Apple, was delivered to the consumers outside the Apple Store.

Parallel to the action, a new research report, titled iSlave behind the iPhone: Foxconn Workers in Central China, which documented the deplorable working conditions at an iPhone factory, is released today. The findings reaffirm the failure of Apple in complying with labour standards. During the 1-hour demonstration, Apple ignored the labour rights activists and refused to receive the investigative report. SACOM denounces Apple which puts revenue before labour rights and calls on consumers to stand with the production workers.

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