Samsung manufacturer in China employs child labor, group alleges
(CBS News) China Labor Watch is a non-profit group that monitors working conditions in factories in China. And now the group is alleging that HEG Electronics, which manufactures Samsung devices, employs children under the age of 16, Bloomberg reports.
According to a report released by China Labor Watch, HEG Electronics employs 2,000 workers. Of those, the organization listed seven workers they believed to be 16-years-old or younger, but estimated that there could be between 50 and 100 children working at the factory.
"The employment of child laborers can occur was firstly because of HEG's slack internal supervision mechanisms; they never check the students' IDs," the group wrote in its report.
China Labor Watch had a group member pose as a factory worker to carry out the investigation.The group found that the children often carried out dangerous tasks, resulting in injury, and were paid about 70 percent of what adults made for the same amount of work.
"The company has clearly violated Chinese labor laws," a spokesperson for China Labor Watch told Bloomberg. "A serious light needs to be shined on these issues."
Samsung denied claims that its manufactures are breaking labor laws and released this statement to CBS News:
"Samsung Electronics has conducted two separate on-site inspections on HEG's working conditions this year but found no irregularities on those occasions. Given the report, we will conduct another field survey at the earliest possible time to ensure our previous inspections have been based on full information and to take appropriate measures to correct any problems that may surface. Samsung Electronics is a company held to the highest standards of working conditions and we try to maintain that at our facilities and the facilities of partner companies around the world."
