sourcewatch.org
In Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, Samsung produces mobile phone parts through its joint venture Kejian. While wages have increased an average of 15% in the Pearl River Delta, which includes Shenzhen, between 1994 and 2006, cost of living has increased 150%.[1]Shenzhen is also one of China's many "special economic zones" (or SEZs), where the ACFTU, China's labor union, allows liberal labor conditions to prevail in order to promote the growth of export industries.[1] The minimum hourly wage in this zone is $0.39 USD, actually higher than the $0.30/hour minimum wage outside the SEZ.[1]
While Samsung does produce all of its mobile handsets in-house, many of the parts for these handsets are produced elsewhere. In the Micro-device facility in the Philippines which supplies Samsung, workers reported that conditions had improved from 2005 through 2006, and that medical care was available on-site, 8 days of sick leave per year provided, safety equipment was provided for workers using hazardous chemicals, working areas are generally clean and not dusty, and temperatures and lighting in work areas, while variable, were generally acceptable.[1]
Samsung workers in India receive fixed wages not dependent on performance, unlike many other employees of mobile phone manufacturing plants in that country, who are often subject to subjective and arbitrary evaluations of performance by management.[1] Despite this fact, however, workers in Samsung factories' wages, while slightly higher than comparable employees', do not cover their basic expenses, especially since many relocated in order to work at the Samsung production facility, increasing their costs of living by requiring them to find somewhere to stay while they worked.[1] In addition, workers at Samsung facilities in India reported that they had been discouraged upon being hired from joining a union by management, and the facilities both remote and access to them limited, making organizing workers extremely difficult.[1] Workers in Hungary are also discouraged from unionizing, both through explicit prohibition and because Samsung threatened to relocate in instances where workers began organizing.[1]
Samsung is one of the major purchasers of electronics produced at the Lite-On Computer Technology production facility in Shijie Town, Dongguan Province, China (founded 1997).[8] By early 2008, the facility employed about 5000 people who enter the company by paying agencies based in Shijie town, Dongguan, 500-600 yuan (for men) or 200 yuan (for women). [9] While Lite-On production schedules follow a normal 8-hour workday, breaks consist of only 10 minutes twice a day and are unpaid – further, overtime work in the evenings, on weekends, and especially during busy seasons, is mandatory and can reach up to 100 hours a month, in violation of both Chinese Labor Law and the [EICC] standard. [10] Basic wages at Lite-On complied with Chinese minimum wage laws (690 yuan/month in 2007), but until mid-to-late 2007 when overtime began being paid at twice the standard weekend rate (8.24 yuan/hour) the company violated overtime wage laws by paying over 2 yuan less per hour. [10] A fire in the factory in February of 2008 has caused workers to be extremely concerned about their safety, and as of May 2008 production had not yet fully resumed at full capacity due to the damage the fire had caused. [10] Workers are charged up to one quarter of their wages on food, electricity, and water for eating and living in the factory dormitories, which house up to 16 people per room. [10] Research conducted by [SACOM] and [Bread for All] in early 2008 concluded that workers at Lite-On were unaware of their rights under either [EICC] standards or any of the codes of conduct of Lite-On’s customers, including Samsung.[10]
Samsung purchases power supply devices including invertors, converters, and adapters from the Yonghong Electronics factory in Shenzhen. Yonghong is a member of the FSP Group and was founded in May 2000. In 2006, it was found to employ children under the age of 16, though by 2008 only workers of legal age were found to be working in the factory.[11] Workers at the factory are forced to work up to 7 days a week and 100-200 hours of overtime a month, in clear violation of Chinese labor law. Exhaustion is a common problem amongst workers at the factory, and they are often paid wages below the legal minimum, especially probationary (new) workers. [12] While some workers are paid the legal minimum wage of 750 yuan/month, the system in place to pay overtime wages does not pay for more than 3 hours of overtime a day, even though workers are forced to work longer in order to make the daily production quotas. [13] Because of the repetitive nature of the factory work and the extreme long hours, besides exhaustion, workers suffer from repetitive motion injuries, and neck, shoulder, and back pain are common. [13] The problem is exacerbated by the management policy that fines workers for moving their chairs from a yellow line painted on the floor to make all chairs placed in a straight line, a policy even worse for smaller employees who are not close enough to reach their work tables comfortably. [13] Workers are not provided with hazard or safety training or face masks and inhale fumes produced by soldering. [14] Workers at the Yonghong factory are not permitted to stop working there, despite the Chinese labor law code which allows for resignation with one-month prior notice. Employees complain that management refuses to look at their applications of resignation. [14] Workers sleep in rooms with 12 people in the dormitories, and they expressed concerns to SACOM interviewers about the quality and cleanliness of the food provided to them. [15]
Human Rights
Despite Samsung's Global Code of Conduct, investigation into its general supply chain monitoring process suggest it does little to implement its supposed commitments. Bellypoly Moulders and EIPPL, two of Samsung's consumer electronics suppliers operating in India, reported that Samsung failed to "put any conditions in terms of labour or others standards and that the only conditions were those surrounding the quality of the product," that workers work 12 hour shifts, that no labor inspections had ever been made (at Bellpoly).[1]
A 2008 study demonstrated that Samsung, as well as several other major manufacturers of mobile phones, including Nokia, LG, and Motorola use cobalt mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the production of their mobile phones, thereby running the risk of supporting unfair labor practices in the mines and serious related human rights abuses.[16] Despite the companies former claims that they could not trace the origins of cobalt and other minerals used in the production of their mobile handsets, the report demonstrates that supply chains are identifiable and notes that despite this information, none of the mobile phone companies have taken action to insure that their cobalt suppliers comply with their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.[17]
Difference is Apple investigates and punishes subcontractors found in violation while the major Android OEM denies, decieves and looks the other way.<\I> |
