A Walmart supplier at the center of a row over industrial accidents has issued a press statement saying it is planning actions to improve safety measures.

Household products company Elec-Tech International (ETI) (Shenzhen: 002500) was accused by Hong Kong-based workers’ rights group, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), of neglecting safety following a series of accidents in which workers lost hands or fingers.

ETI is currently involved in a court case brought by Ruan Libing, a 22-year-old former employee who lost a forearm in an accident at an Elec-Tech plant in the south China coastal city of Zhuhai.

SACOM published a highly critical report on working conditions at the Zhuhai plant after carrying out in-depth interviews with seven workers who were seriously injured there. The report claimed 60 workers had gone through disability assessments as a result of accidents at the plant over the past 12 months.

The company statement, released on August 21, says “injuries at the workplace have caused ETI company’s management and staff great sorrow.”

“ETI’s Board of Directors and top management are fully aware of the media reports and have set up a committee immediately to investigate cases. Meanwhile the company has also appointed an independent consultant to perform a safety audit and come up with recommendations to further enhance the safety measures at workplace.”

“We will take every action to reduce the occurrence of accidents in future.”

Sources said that ETI Chairman Wang Donglei carried out an inspection of the Zhuhai factory on the morning of Tuesday August 24.

SACOM has since written an open letter to the company demanding that it informs workers of the details of the corrective action plan, and enters into collective negotiations with the injured workers in the presence of lawyers and SACOM representatives.

Despite government efforts to cut industrial accidents in recent years, China’s workplaces remain extremely dangerous. A blast in a northeast China fireworks factory on August 16 killed 19 workers, and 2,631 miners were killed in the country’s notoriously dangerous coal industry during 2009.

Hong Kong-based labor rights organization SACOM is calling on Walmart to investigate one of its Chinese suppliers following a series of industrial accidents in which workers lost limbs.

Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehavior interviewed seven workers who were seriously injured while working at the Elec-Tech factory in the coastal city of Zhuhai in southern China.

In a report published on 18 August the organization says that in the year from June 2009 to June 2010, 60 workers have had disability assessments following accidents at the Zhuhai plant.

22 year-old Ruan Libing lost his left forearm in an accident at the plant on July 10 last year while working the nightshift. The company paid him 90,000 yuan (US$ 13,256) following the accident, but he is currently suing them for additional compensation.

An Elec-Tech manager speaking by telephone from Zhuhai confirmed that the court case was in progress.

The manager said he could not give the exact number of industrial accidents because the figures are kept at departmental levels, but added that, last year, “As far as I know less than ten industrial accidents caused injuries to workers.”

Elec-Tech supplies a wide range of home appliances to Walmart and other major supermarket chains. The company is quoted on the Shenzhen stock exchange (002005) and employs 12,000 people across China. It has 6,000 employees in Zhuhai.

The SACOM report claims the company imposes fines of between 300 and 800 yuan on workers who are injured in industrial accidents. Ruan Libing was fined after he lost his forearm.

According to SACOM “The fine implies that the worker is at fault for his or her own injury. Workers believe Elec-Tech uses the fines as a tactic to deter post-injury litigation.” In the court case with Ruan Libing, SACOM say the company is using the fine it imposed on Ruan to deny responsibility for his injury.

Asked about the fines, the company manager said “The situation is complicated. If the workers do not follow the operation manual, and cause mistakes in production, not only the workers but also the head of their assembly line, department or even the factory may be fined.”

“Sometimes young workers in their early 20s do not follow the manual strictly and cause injuries,” he added.

The SACOM report suggests accidents are the result of the intensity of work in the Zhuhai plant, where manager bonuses depend on productivity, and exhausting work schedules with compulsory overtime of up to 134 hours a month. The legal maximum amount of overtime allowed under China’s Labor Law is 36 hours per month.

“I cannot say 100 percent we do not have an overwork problem but our workers do not work more than the maximum time regulated in the Labor Law,” the Elec-Tech manager said.

Ask how the company will respond to the report, the manager said: “We will improve our management of both equipment and staff. We will increase safety training and education for the workers to make sure they strictly follow the operations manual.”

According to the SACOM report safety training provided by the company is inadequate. The report also says that infra-red safety devices are available for some of the machines at the plant but have not been installed.

Ruan Libing said the workplace was crowded and noisy with materials strewn around the workshop. He said four other accidents took place in the month he lost his arm.

“The company just told us to be careful,” Ruan said. “I think their training and management are both flawed.”

Elec-Tech posted net profits of 49 million yuan (US$ 7.2 million) in 2009 following a 162 million yuan loss in 2008. Walmart’s earnings rose 3.6 percent in Q2 2010 to US$3.59 billion, driven mainly by sales growth in China and Brazil.

South China Morning Post | 2010-08-20

BIZ5| BIZ| By Bien Perez

Retail chain giant Wal-Mart Stores has launched an investigation into the alleged hazardous working conditions at the mainland factories of its household appliances supplier, Elec-Tech International.

The United States-based firm’s action was a response to allegations made in a report by a local labour rights group, the Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom), about the poor safety record at Elec-Tech’s plants, where frequent industrial accidents have left workers with severed hands and fingers.

As soon as we learned of these allegations, we immediately launched an investigation of the factory referenced in the report, said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Erica Jones.

We take reports like this very seriously and we will take prompt remedial action if our investigations confirm any of the findings.

The South China Morning Post yesterday reported that 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 Zhuhai production site, which employs a workforce of about 6,000.

The main causes of the injuries at Shenzhen-listed Elec-Tech’s factories are unsafe machines, inadequate training of workers, absence of protective equipment, and pressure to work faster, according to Sacom.

The rampant labour rights violations at Elec-Tech prove that Wal-Mart’s implementation of its code of conduct [for suppliers] has failed, the group said.

Repeated attempts to contact Elec-Tech met with no response.

Wal-Mart is a major client of Elec-Tech, which is one of the word’s largest contract manufacturers of small household appliances. Its products include toaster ovens, coffee makers, deep fryers, blenders, computer-controlled bread makers, flat irons and outdoor electronic grills.

Sacom spokeswoman Debby Chan Sze-wan said Wal-Mart had a responsibility to ensure safe and decent working conditions at its supplier’s production facilities.

Besides an investigation, Sacom wants Wal-Mart to immediately draw up a plan to replace the old and unsafe foot pedal-powered equipment still used by Elec-Tech. Workers call these hand-eating machines.

The group also wants Wal-Mart, which is the world’s largest retailer, to compensate all the victims of industrial accidents at Elec-Tech, provide training and information on labour rights to workers, set up a workers’ committee to monitor the safety conditions, publish a checklist of industrial injuries sustained at the factories, and make available a complaint hotline for workers.

Jones said Wal-Mart would check if factory employees had access to information posters describing how they can anonymously contact a local-language hotline to report any violations of Wal-Mart standards.

We remain committed to sourcing merchandise that is produced responsibly by suppliers that adhere to Wal-Mart’s rigorous `Standards for Suppliers’ code of conduct, Jones said.

Copyright (c) 2010. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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.

Sorry, this entry is only available in 繁體中文 and 簡体中文.

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

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 at:

http://sacom.hk/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/20100810-tianyu_3rd-report.pdf

]]> http://sacom.hk/archives/688/feed http://sacom.hk/archives/686 http://sacom.hk/archives/686#comments Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:34:31 +0000 admin http://sacom.hk/?p=686
[public letter] Mr. James Chen Vice President Wintek Corporation10, Jianguo Road, Tanzih Township Taichung County 42701 Taiwan 25 June 2010 Dear Mr. James Chen, Concern about the alleged poisonings at Masstop In the aftermath of the massive poisonings last year at United Win, a subsidiary of Wintek Corporation in Suzhou, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) regrets [...]]]>

[public letter]

Mr. James Chen

Vice President

Wintek Corporation10, Jianguo Road, Tanzih Township

Taichung County 42701

Taiwan

25 June 2010

Dear Mr. James Chen,

Concern about the alleged poisonings at Masstop

In the aftermath of the massive poisonings last year at United Win, a subsidiary of Wintek Corporation in Suzhou, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) regrets that workers at Masstop, another Wintek Corporation factory located in Dongguan, were recently sickened due to inhalation of a chemical used for cleaning screens. In early June, reports circulated about a few night shift workers who were poisoned in the factory when using n-hexane, the same chemical that caused nerve damage to 47 workers at United Win.

SACOM is deeply concerned about the alleged Masstop poisonings. SACOM representatives visited the Donghua Hospital in Dongguan to investigate the case in 2nd week of June. Medical staff in the emergency department of the hospital revealed that Masstop workers were admitted to the hospital in early June. Confirming this report, according to Masstop workers, factory management has said that nine workers were sent to hospital due to a breakdown in the ventilation system on 1 June. At the same time, however, Wintek has denied that the chemical Masstop workers were using was n-hexane. The workers also told SACOM that they had been forbidden to comment on the case.

No matter whether n-hexane was used in the factory or not, it is incumbent on Wintek to ease the worry of the workers. After the incident, Wintek did not share the facts with workers immediately, but blamed the concerned workers who spread the reports. The overall situation also shows that workers do not have adequate knowledge about occupational health and safety. To ensure the health and safety of the workers, SACOM demands that Wintek to:

1. give a public account of the poisonings, including under what circumstances workers were poisoned; the current situation of the victims; the treatment and compensation they are receiving, and what corrective action Wintek is taking to prevent repetition of the tragedy;

2. inform all workers about the chemicals they use, explain the harmful characteristics of those chemicals, and provide all workers with adequate protective equipment in accordance with the Chinese Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Occupational Diseases;

3. enhance workers’ knowledge of labour rights and occupational health and safety by conducting trainings for workers;

4. build up an effective communication channel between frontline workers and management by facilitating the establishment of a worker representation system in line with the Trade Union Law;

5. apologize to the victims of the incident.

SACOM is looking forward to Wintek’s response as soon as possible!

Thank you!

Yours sincerely,

Debby Chan

Project Officer

SACOM

June 25^th, 2010

On May 28^th, under mounting pressure from labor rights group and concerned scholars around the world, the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) Board of Directors expressed that they were saddened about the loss of life at Foxconn. The 8-member EICC Board, consisting of representatives from IBM, Dell, Jabil, STMicroelectronics, Cisco, Intel, Flextronics, and HP, has established a task force to study factors affecting employee health and welfare in their own facilities as well as in their suppliers in the global supply chains.

However, the EICC Board had failed to “invite” its members Apple and Foxconn to attend a phone conference with concerned civil society organizations, scheduled for June 21^st. Hong Kong-based Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) believes that EICC is, in effect, protecting Apple and Foxconn from taking direct responsibility for the suicides of young workers at the workplace.

EICC is a company-only industry association established in 2004 following waves of international anti-sweatshop campaigns targeting technology brands. It published a voluntary Code of Conduct to ward off public criticisms of alleged sweatshop labor conditions in their production chains. The Code focuses on five elements: labor, health and safety, ethics, the environment, and management systems. As of December 2008, according to its first Annual Report, the EICC had 45 member companies, with an average yearly increase in membership of 55 percent. In 2009, seven companies did not renew their membership reportedly because of the economic downturn. Four new companies joined EICC in the same year. As of December 2009, EICC had 42 members.

While EICC is interested in member recruitment and renewal, SACOM is far more concerned about the mechanism under which a company’s membership is going to be suspended or disqualified.

Business interests from within the EICC network seem to discourage any serious questioning of their own failures in taking corporate social responsibility.

SACOM demands open access on-site at Foxconn’s Longhua and Guanlan plants in Shenzhen City and Foxconn’s other facilities in the north and in interior provinces in China. Our research team is seeking to look into the management methods and dormitory conditions at Foxconn during this summer. We will write up a comprehensive report for public release.

Effective July 1^st, Foxconn will pay its 450,000 Shenzhen employees a wage 9% higher than the legal minimum wage level, i.e., 1,200 yuan/month. This pay rise, unfortunately, still falls short of the most basic living standards in big cities. We advocate for the right of Chinese workers to have democratic elections of union leaders, and to conduct collective consultations of wages and benefits. We also call on Apple and Foxconn’s other buyers to raise the unit price of their orders to reflect the true cost of labor. This is to ensure a decent livelihood for the people behind the “best-selling products” such as iPhones and iPads.

Additional info:

Appeal by 9 sociologists (18 May 2010)

Address to the problems of new generations of Chinese migrant workers,

End to Foxconn tragedy now!

http://sacom.hk/archives/644

(Statement in Chinese at http://tech.sina.com.cn/it/2010-05-19/13214206671.shtml;

see also the blog at http://t.sina.com.cn/1743939945?retcode=0)

Appeal by concerned international scholars (8 June 2010)

Create humane labor standards at Foxconn and

end “stealth manufacturing” in information technology!

http://sacom.hk/archives/649

(Chinese translation at http://sacom.hk/hk/archives/649)

Appeal by Taiwan Scholars (13 June 2010)

End to sweatshops, safeguard labor and human rights!

http://sacom.hk/hk/archives/676

Online petition in Chinese: http://sites.google.com/site/laborgogo2010/

(English translation at http://sites.google.com/site/laborgogo2010eng/)

Contact persons:

Debby Chan, Project Officer, debby@sacom.hk, + 852 6756 8964

Jenny Chan, Advisor, wlchan@sacom.hk, +44 (0) 7756 511404