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Article

10 Sep 2006

Author:
Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM)

[PDF] In Search of Disney's Conscience [China] [Article in Chinese]

[Original article in Chinese. Title translation, and following summary of the article's key points, provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.] Further to the report released by SACOM in August 2005 on labour rights violations in four of Disney's supplier factories in China ["Looking for Mickey Mouse’s Conscience - A survey of the working conditions of Disney’s supplier factories in China"], SACOM finds that Disney has not shown much improvement in terms of its compliance to Chinese labour laws and its own code of conduct. In this report, SACOM interviewed workers from 3 other factories, in Shenzhen and Zhuhai, namely, Longgang Huangxing Light Industry, Chai Seng Candle Products and Kamlong Industrial [Kamlong Industrial is also a supplier for Tesco, Kellogg's, YUM!, Wal-mart, Target, Woolworths and First Years (part of RC2)] respectively producing key chains, candles and toys for Disney. These factories pay workers hourly wages (2.04-3.41 Renminbi) much lower than the legal minimum (4.02-4.12 Renminbi, depending on the region). In the worst case, a worker was paid on average 1.7 Renminbi per hour. Workers work a 11- to 14-hour work-day, with overtime not fully compensated. The factories were also accused of improper and unclear calculation of wages and denying workers sick leave and the choice to quit their job without losing their financial deposit. Safety in the workplace is a grave concern in addition to the lack of social insurance. Living conditions and meals provided to workers are poor. In one factory, a dormitory has only one shower and one toilet to be shared by 180 people. None of those interviewed were aware of these factories providing paid maternity leave to women workers. Workers from one of the factories, Chai Seng Candle Products, disclosed in a letter to SACOM that the products are produced for Disney, Hallmark Cards, Target and American Greetings.

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