Labor authorities in southern China are to impose total fines of
1.36 million yuan (US$178,900) on two firms licensed to produce
souvenirs for next year's Olympics for forcing their employees to
work overtime.
Investigations showed the two firms making Olympic caps and
handbags in the southern city of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, ordered their employees to
work long hours and one failed to pay them adequate overtime, said
spokesman with the Shenzhen Municipal Labor and Social Security
Bureau on Tuesday.
At Mainland Headwear Holdings Ltd., 2,779 of the 3,000 employees
were each forced to work 40 to 53 extra hours in May, while at the
Yue Wing Cheong Light Products Co. Ltd., 1,779 of the 2,600 staff
were each forced to work 60 to 100 extra hours, the spokesman
said.
Mainland would be fined about 833,700 yuan and Yue Wing Cheong
533,700 yuan, equivalent to 300 yuan for each employee, he
said.
The two companies, which had been ordered to "rectify their
mistakes," have applied for a public hearing after which the labor
authorities would consider penalties, he said. Mainland had already
paid the workers the money owed and Yue Wing Chong had been ordered
to pay the arrears.
The two firms, along with two others also with Olympic product
licenses in nearby Dongguan City -- Lekit Stationery Co. Ltd. and
Eagle Leather Products Co. Ltd. -- had allegedly used child labor,
according to a report issued by Play Fair 2008, a global alliance
of trade unions and labor organizations, in June.
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) announced last week
that investigations found that Lekit did use child labor, but not
Olympics products, and the three other companies had not used child
labor.
But BOCOG said it had decided to terminate Lekit's Olympic
product license and demanded the company stop manufacturing and
selling the products.
Meanwhile, investigators said that they had suspended the
examination and approval of new product designs produced by the
three other companies after finding they had forced employees to
work overtime.
(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2007)