A Chinese supplier for Korean electronics giant Samsung uses children to make its products, hits workers on the factory floor, and punishes workers who make mistakes by forcing them to stand all daylong or write “self-criticism” reports, according to a labor advocacy group.
HEG Electronics, the company that assembles devices like DVD players and phones for Samsung, uses children under the age of 16 in its factory in Huizhou, while also forcing employees to work long hours and subjecting them to harsh conditions, the New York-based China Labor Watch said.
“Our investigators worked in the factory during the months of June and July, and had identified seven children working—all of them are under the age of 16—in the department in which the investigators were working,” the group said in a report issued Tuesday.
The group said the high number of children working in the vicinity of its investigators “suggests that child labor is a common practice in the factory,” and it is currently unknown how many children work in the factory. However, it estimates there may be 50 to 100 children working there.
“The company has clearly violated Chinese labor laws,” the report stressed.
