Sacom

South China Morning Post | 2010-08-19

BIZ3| BIZ| By Bien Perez

Wal-Mart supplier ‘produces severed fingers and hands’, says labour rights group.

A local labour rights group wants retail giant Wal-Mart to investigate alleged unsafe conditions at mainland factories operated by its home appliance supplier where frequent industrial accidents have left many workers with severed hands and fingers.

The main causes of the injuries at Shenzhen-listed Elec-Tech International’s factories are unsafe machines, inadequate training of workers, absence of protective equipment and pressure to work faster, according to a Hong Kong organisation called Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom).

An investigation by the group earlier this month found more than 60 workers had been disabled by injuries sustained in industrial accidents between July last year and June this year at Elec-Tech’s main production facilities in Zhuhai.

“Wal-Mart, as a major client of Elec-Tech, has a responsibility to ensure safe and decent working conditions at its supplier,” Sacom spokeswoman Debby Chan Sze-wan said yesterday.

Chan described the industrial accidents as “man-made tragedies” which could have been prevented.

No response was received from inquiries made to Wal-Mart in the United States and its mainland subsdiary’s office in Shenzhen.

An executive reached at Elec-Tech offices in Tsim Sha Tsui had no comment.

A report from Sacom says Wal-Mart is a major buyer of goods produced by Elec-Tech, which is one of the world’s largest contract manufacturers of home appliances. It runs 12 subsidiaries on the mainland with about 20,000 staff, of who many are migrant workers.

Founded in 1996, Elec-Tech makes toaster ovens, coffee makers, deep fryers, blenders, computer-controlled bread makers, flat irons and outdoor electronic grills under its own brands and those of cus-tomers in North America and Europe.

For former Elec-Tech employee Ruan Libing, the large exporter has a more sinister image, that of a “factory that produces severed fingers and hands”.

Ruan, a migrant worker, lost his forearm in an accident at Elec-Tech’s Zhuhai plant last year. He said the firm has, over the years, become adept at handling such accidents - to its own benefit.

Elec-Tech allegedly imposes fines of between 300 yuan and 800 yuan (HK$342.64 and HK$913.72) on victims of workplace injuries for “mistakes of production”.

Sacom says Elec-Tech is not committed to the standard of protection for workers required by mainland law. It cites continued use of old pedal-operated equipment, called “hand-eating machines” by workers, at its Zhuhai plant - untrained workers with inadequate protective gear must operate these machines which lack basic infrared sensors that could help prevent accidents.

Workers endure 10-hour days and are underpaid, the Sacom report says.