Samsung found abusing underage workers in China

Posted on : 2012-09-05 14:06 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Evidence of illegal labor practices such as forced overtime; company denies allegations

By Lee Jeong-hun, staff reporter in Tianjin

Samsung Electronics has been operating a factory in Huizhou since 1992. Located in the Chinese province of Guangdong, it produces cell phones, MP3 players, and DVD players, all stamped with the Samsung logo. It is also a site where China Labor Watch, an NGO based in the US, uncovered the use of child labor.

The latest targets under investigation include not only Huizhou Samsung Electronics, but also Shenzhen Samsung Kejian Mobile, Tianjin Samsung Electronics, Tianjin Samsung Mobile Display, Shandong Samsung Electronics Digital Printing, Suzhou Samsung Electronics. In addition to those six Samsung factories, two South Korean primary subcontractors are also under the microscope: Intops and Crucial Ems, the latter formerly known as Chamtek.

China Labor Watch is claiming to have accounts of minors frequently being put to work on assembly lines with forged IDs. These underage employees, it says, are doing the same work as adults without any safeguards or special workplace considerations.

Back in August, the Hankyoreh met with two 21-year-old workers who have been employed at Tianjin Samsung Mobile Display for over two years. “Lu Ling” and “Shu Lingyu” said some of their coworkers on a line inspecting monitor picture quality were born in 1997, making them 15 years old today. The employees in question forged their identification to be able to work there.

Lu and Shu added that they didn’t know if the company was aware of these workers’ true ages, but that it didn’t seem to care one way or the other.

“Yang Zhiqi,” a 20-year-old worker at Tianjin Samsung Electronics, also said the same day that there was a 15-year-old worker at that factory when Yang arrived there in 2011.

According to China Labor Watch, Tianjin Samsung Mobile Display and Shenzhen Samsung Kejian Mobile have both seen illegal activities with the employment of underage workers between 16 and 18 years old. The NGO said the minors, who are typically vocational school students, are given the same overtime loads as adult workers, working two to three shifts a day. It also said the same vocational schools that recruit these students for the company also solicit non-students in exchange for an “introduction fee” of 500 to 1,000 RMB (US$79-$158).

Based on its own investigation, Samsung Electronics issued a denial on Aug. 3 regarding China Labor Watch allegations of child labor at HEG Electronics, a Samsung Electronics subcontractor based in Huizhou. The NGO’s founder, Li Qiang, told the Hankyoreh in a Sept. 4 phone interview that HEG was aware of Samsung’s plans to investigate, and that it moved its underage workers off the premises prior to the investigation team’s arrival.

Li added that the team witnessed several cars leaving the scene with underage workers inside. He also revealed photographs and detailed pay statements for a 14-year-old girl who was revealed to be working at one of the factories on Aug. 8.

China Labor Watch also denounced the working conditions at Samsung factories in China, where employees are made to work more than 100 overtime hours a month with restrictions on their use of holidays and sick leave.

Samsung workers gave similar accounts while meeting with the Hankyoreh in China. In an Aug. 24 interview, “Wang Chengtai,” a 23-year-old Intops employee in Tianjin, reported working from 8 am until 10 pm that day.

“I started in January, and I haven’t had more than seven or eight days off since then,” Wang said.

Wang also said Intops received Samsung orders without consideration of its workers and put them to work doing overtime every day, even on weekends.

“A lot of the employees quit over this, but the orders remain the same, so we have to keep working long hours,” Wang explained.

Workers also alleged that Intops was preventing its workers from using holidays and sick leave. Wang said, “If you’re sick and ask for the day off, they won’t allow it, and if you end up too sick to go to work, they’ll dock you three days of pay for absence without permission.”

The situation for Samsung employees is not much different from what subcontracting workers face. “Chen Baihao,” a 26-year-old refrigerator production employee at Suzhou Samsung Electronics, said smaller order amounts had led to fewer overtime hours recently: “only” two hours a day, with hours on Saturdays.

“During peak season at the end of the year, we’re working four to five hours a day in overtime and coming in on Sundays,” Chen said. “At one point, I worked 21 days straight.”

China Labor Watch said that if this situation is to be remedied, Samsung needs to set up a hotline for workers to bring matters up with the company. It also needs to recognize unions, the NGO added.

Additionally, it said third parties such as NGOs, rather than Samsung itself, should be allowed to examine Samsung plants and subcontracting companies.

Samsung Electronics dismissed the content of the China Labor Watch report Tuesday. It said minors were not employed in Samsung plants in China or anywhere else in the world.

 

Names of workers have been changed for this article

 

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

 

button that move to original korean article (클릭시 원문으로 이동하는 버튼)

Related stories

Most viewed articles