Tolerating Violations in the ICTI CARE Process: Tianyu Toys Keeps Failing to Meet Standards
10 August 2010
This is the third time SACOM has conducted an investigation at Tianyu. In October 2007, SACOM issued a report titled “Tianyu Toys Brings You Winnie the Pooh”, which highlighted the factory’s rampant violations of labour laws, including excessive working hours, underpayment, and cheating in factory audits. During summer of 2009, SACOM revisited Tianyu to see if any improvement had taken place in the factory. The second report, “Exploitation of Toy Factory Workers at the Bottom of the Global Supply Chain”, was issued in cooperation with Südwind Agentur and other allies of Stop Toying Around. Disappointingly, serious labour law violations remained. Soon after our research, Tianyu was certified in the ICTI (International Council of Toy Industries) CARE (Caring, Awareness, Responsible, Ethical) Process in September 2009. However, this status has not lasted for long. Recently, Tianyu was on probation in the CARE Process for the second times within one year. Since then, some corrective actions have been taken place. However, the factory still fails to fulfill its minimum legal obligations. In July 2009, researchers interviewed over 20 Tianyu workers. The following are the key findings:
- excessive overtime work up to 282 hours;
- overtime work is not voluntary and it is extremely difficult to take leave for rest;
- withholding worker salary for a month;
- wage is always wrongly calculated;
- workers are deprived of pension scheme and they are not sure if they are protected by industrial accidents insurance;
- no confidence to worker committee;
- punitive fine is replaced by dismissal;
- absence of paid sick leave;
- deceptions during factory audit;
- poor hygiene in dormitory;
- no worker has ever seen the ICTI Business Code.
The full report is available here.
