Even after the audit and imposed changes, the problem persists

Dec 15, 2012 10:10 GMT  ·  By

After China Labor Watch first investigated it for breaches of work regulations, Samsung performed an immediate audit on basically all of its Chinese suppliers. Sadly, this doesn't seem to have been enough.

The investigation that Samsung conducted on the Chinese companies that supply it with product components concluded that some rules had been broken but that no underage workers were being used.

The results were published less than a month ago (November 2012), but that wasn't the end of the problem, apparently.

According to China Labor Watch, HTNS Shenzhen does hire underage workers and forces employees to work overtime, among other things.

Not only do people have to work 14 or 15 hours a day, they have to do it in poorly ventilated facilities and with few, if any, plans in place for injuries and potential fires.

Three workers under the age of 16 were found, one who had been working at the factory since before Samsung's audit took place (September 2012).

It makes people wonder just how thorough Samsung was. On the one hand, Samsung performed it quickly, possibly to prevent the factories from hiding the fact, by ordering the underage workers to stay at home and such.

On the other hand, the audit was a very short affair. We saw many asking why the company seemed to be rushing things.

Opinions are divided here, as Samsung isn't condoning this unlawful behavior. HTNS Shenzen is just one of many Chinese factories that Samsung calls upon, and it is its own responsibility to abide by the law.

At any rate, CLW notified Samsung of the workers, but two of them were no longer at HTNS by the time the report got through, and they couldn't be found afterwards.

China Labor Watch did uncover other worrisome things though, like strange fines for taking too much rive and failing to finish it. Coupled with the existence of a single fire extinguisher for a whole 1,100-person facility all this amounts to some serious problems. Definitely not the best news in a time when people die of cancer from working for Samsung.