Focus
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Wal-Mart Supplier Produces Severed Fingers and Hands
18 Aug 2010
In August 2010 Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) visited seven workers who suffered industrial accidents at Elec-Tech. The following findings are from in-depth interviews with the workers.
“Elec-Tech is a factory that produces severed fingers and hands!” stated Ruan Li Bing, who had his forearm cut off in an accident last year. “After so many cases of injuries, Elec-Tech has become professional at handling these incidents,” he explained. “All injured workers are sent to the PLA No.168 Hospital immediately.”
The amputations are not merely accidents but man-made tragedies that can be prevented. Within a year, from July 2009 to June 2010, over 60 workers at Elec-Tech’s Zhuhai production facilities have gone through disability assessment after industrial injuries. We can hardly imagine how many fingers, hands and arms have been cut by the machines over the years at Elec-Tech.
The machines smash not only the hands of the workers, but their futures as well. Many of them are young new workers in the factory. For a worker in his or her early twenties, it is very unlikely that he or she will find a new job after an amputation. Many of the young workers are the breadwinners of their families and have heavy family responsibilities. Some of them dream of getting married once they have saved some money from work, while others dream of opening a small shop in their hometown. All these aspirations fade after a severe work injury, however. It is heartbreaking to observe how victims try to hide their mutilated hands or wrist stumps, especially in public. They put their hands in their pockets or wear long-sleeved shirts. Even when compensation is paid in accordance with legal standards, it is not enough to compensate for the psychological damage and crushing of life plans.
Outrageously, Elec-Tech shows no interest in preventing the repetition of these tragedies. “Our torment does not bother Elec-Tech at all! They don’t care about the ongoing danger in the factory,” said a male worker who is receiving treatment in hospital. The machine that injured him is still in operation and has not been replaced or repaired.
The main causes of the injuries are unsafe machines, inadequate training for workers, absence of protective equipment, and pressure to work faster.
Other violations found including:
- fine is imposed to victims of industrial injury;
- excessive overtime up to 310 hours per month; and deprive of rest day in a week;
- arbitrary wage calculation; and
- deceptions during audit.
SACOM’s Demands
Wal-Mart as the major client to Elec-Tech and has responsibility to ensure safety and decent working conditions at its supplier. To this end, SACOM demands that Wal-Mart to:
- carry out an investigation on work safety at Elec-Tech immediately and issue a corrective plan;
- work with Elec-Tech to replace the old and unsafe machines;
- compensate all the victims of industrial injuries;
- provide labour rights training for workers, including information about laws on work safety;
- facilitate the establishment of a workers committee to monitor the working conditions at Elec-Tech;
- publicize a name list of industrial injuries at Elec-Tech for public scrutiny; and
- make available a complaint hotline for all workers.
Full text of the report is available here.
Contact Person
Debby Chan, Project Officer
Tel: 852-6756 8964
Email: debby@sacom.hk
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