Report Cites Labor Infractions by Wal-Mart Supplier in China

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NYT

By Jennifer 8. Lee

Wal-Mart Stores said today that it would begin an investigation into labor conditions at a Chinese factory that supplies Wal-Mart with Christmas ornaments, after the National Labor Committee released a report asserting that Chinese teenagers at the factory worked for less than the legal minimum wage.

The ornaments in question come from the Guangzhou Huangya Gift Company, one of the largest Christmas ornament factories in China, which has 8,000 employees and is a supplier to a number of American and European companies.

The National Labor Committee — citing interviews, wage records and cellphone pictures smuggled out by teenage workers — said that the employees were being paid at less than Guangzhou’s legal minimum of 55 cents per hour and are being forced to work excessive amounts of overtime. Workers were paid by a piecemeal basis, according to the committee, with some earning as little as 26 cents per hour. The wage records, which were from a 10-day period from June 21 to 30 of this year, show a median wage of 49 cents per hour. By law, the employees should have been earning a median of 68 cents per hour because of overtime regulations.

Hundreds of junior high and high school students were recruited over the summer to work at the factory, with some employees as young as 12 and 13, according to the report. A number of 16-year-old employees, recruited from the Guangdong Province Maoming Transportation Technical School about 250 miles from the factory, were angry at being forced to work shifts as long as 15 hours at below wages promised to them by their teachers. They went on strike on July 8 and filed a lawsuit against the company; as a result, they received some of their back wages.

Read more: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/report-cites-labor-infractions-by-wal-mart-supplier-in-china/?hp