Samsung finds labor violations at China suppliers
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. says its audit of Chinese suppliers found illegal labor practices such as excessive overtime.
Samsung said Monday it found instances of Chinese employees working overtime beyond legal hours and being fined for absence or tardiness.
Samsung conducted a four week audit of 105 suppliers in China after allegations it was ignoring illegal labor practices.
China Labor Watch, a New York-based labor rights group, said in August that Samsung's suppliers hired children and working conditions were "inhumane." Samsung said its audit team found no child labor.
But Samsung said its suppliers must adopt new hiring procedures and it would cancel contracts if child labor is found in future.
It said it will eliminate illegal overtime by the end of 2014.
Samsung is auditing 144 more suppliers in China.
Samsung said Monday it found instances of Chinese employees working overtime beyond legal hours and being fined for absence or tardiness.
Samsung conducted a four week audit of 105 suppliers in China after allegations it was ignoring illegal labor practices.
China Labor Watch, a New York-based labor rights group, said in August that Samsung's suppliers hired children and working conditions were "inhumane." Samsung said its audit team found no child labor.
But Samsung said its suppliers must adopt new hiring procedures and it would cancel contracts if child labor is found in future.
It said it will eliminate illegal overtime by the end of 2014.
Samsung is auditing 144 more suppliers in China.
Are these Korean labor laws or Chinese?
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Chinese laws are what i would call, uh, sweatshop centric. And violating those to me would be just about putting people into forced labor (or it actually might).
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I would feel much better if these were South Korean standards that were being imposed.
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Oh and âillegal overtimeâ is overtime where the person works more than 40 hours in a week and is not paid as overtime.
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It is not technically illegal currently in China but the law will change in 2014.
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Although I applaud Samsung's diligence in conducting their own audit to confirm whether there is a problem or not, it's hard to believe that 2 full years isn't a little too much leeway in correcting the problem.
Very responsible of Samsung to monitor manufacturing and labor compliance at its contractor factories and then to report and seek to correct violators.Â
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How very different from American Companies like APPLE that denies responsibility and attempts to conceal labor violations.
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Americans allow corporations to represent the VALUES of AMERICA throughout the world and corporations make us look bad. The American people are better people but corporations drag them down.