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Article

11 Sep 2006

Author:
Wendy Leung, Standard [Hong Kong. China]

Group slams Disney over labor abuses in factories [China]

Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, or SACOM, accused three factories in the province [Guangzhou] of gross violation of mainland labor laws...It said the workers, besides being underpaid and forced to work overtime, were also not offered occupational insurance...after interviewing 50 workers from three factories [including Kamlong Industrial] in Shenzhen and Zhuhai...The latest claims drew a curt response from Walt Disney's corporate communications director, Alannah Goss, who said the company took the allegations very seriously and would investigate thoroughly... adding Disney has a strong international labor code of conduct for manufacturers, and carries out regular social compliance audits on independently run factories...However, SACOM spokeswoman Vivien Yau Tze-wei said their new report proved that Disney's regular audits were "useless."..."Workers are offered 70 yuan...as a reward by the factories if they help them cover up the truth when asked by auditors. We have also followed up on the four factories whose workers we interviewed last year, but none of them had made any improvement in treating their employees." Disney had said a year ago it would "take these claims very seriously" and would investigate them diligently after SACOM released its findings on the four factories...According to the group's latest findings, workers at the three factories are underpaid and receive an hourly wage of 2.19 yuan to 3.41 yuan, [much lower than] the legal wage requirement..."Some of the workers are forced to work up to 14 hours every day and 30 days a month, and all of them are denied overtime pay," Yau said.

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