A new report published by NGO coalition Playfair condemns the abusive labour practices of firms creating products for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. These abuses include the use of child workers, some as young as 12, and contradict many of the International Labour Organization's (ILO) standards as well as Chinese labour law.
A new report published by NGO coalition Playfair condemns the abusive labour practices of firms creating products for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. These abuses include the use of child workers, and contradict many of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) standards as well as Chinese labour law. Playfair goes on to say that these firms, whose details and contact information are provided explicitly in the report, have hired children as young as 12 and force them to work 15-hour days.
The firms continue to get away with abuses by falsifying employment records and hiding the children out of view during audits. Playfair sent its own representatives to work in the factory in order to get detailed information about the conditions and witness the poor labour practices firsthand. One of the firms accused, Lekit Stationary, today admitted to using children age 12 and 13, but says they did not work on Olympic-related material.1 Playfair calls on the International Olympics Committee to take more steps to monitor the firms who receive contracts to produce official Olympic-brand products.
China has ratified some, but not all, of the ILO Conventions. They have ratified the convention on the abolition of child labour, which includes a minimum age set for child labour at 15. Chinese law sets the minimum at age 16. The factories are ignoring both standards. This points to a larger problem of oversight and corporate responsibility. While some western companies might be accountable to shareholders and suffer consequences if they are discovered using child labour, it is clear that periodic drop-ins by inspectors are not working, and some Chinese-based firms have little incentive to actually be responsible and act in accordance with the law.
China has not ratified the ILO Conventions on freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining (No. 87 and No. 98). Nor has it ratified the ILO Conventions on the elimination of forced or compulsory labour (No. 29 and No. 105). Playfair has a list of recommendations, which include only holding the games in countries that have ratified, implemented and respected the core ILO conventions, as well as creating accountability mechanisms for future manufacturers of Olympic products. For more information and to read the report in full, with photos and first-hand accounts from factory workers, please visit the website: http://www.playfair2008.org/
1 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6747449.stm
