2010-04-23

Arbetsförhållanden på fabrik


Här finns rapporten av hur de tonåringar har det som producerar bl a den mus vi använder till våra datorer. Världen är sig lik.

KYE recruits hundreds-even up to 1,000-"work study students" 16 and 17 years of age, who work 15-hour shifts, six and seven days a week. In 2007 and 2008, dozens of the work study students were reported to be just 14 and 15 years old. A typical shift is from 7:45 a.m. to 10:55 p.m.

In 2007 and 2008, before the worldwide recession, workers were at the factory 97 hours a week while working 80 ½ hours. In 2009, workers report being at the factory 83 hours a week, while working 68 hours.

Workers are paid 65 cents an hour, which falls to a take-home wage of 52 cents after deductions for factory food.

Workers are prohibited from talking, listening to music or using the bathroom during working hours. As punishment, workers who make mistakes are made to clean the bathrooms.

Security guards sexually harass the young women.

Fourteen workers share each primitive dorm room, sleeping on narrow double-level bunk beds. To "shower," workers fetch hot water in a small plastic bucket to take a sponge bath. Workers describe factory food as awful.

Not only are the hours long, but the work pace is grueling as workers race frantically to complete their mandatory goal of 2,000 Microsoft mice per shift. During the long summer months when factory temperatures routinely reach 86 degrees, workers are drenched in sweat.

There is no freedom of movement and workers can only leave the factory compound during regulated hours.

The workers have no rights, as every single labor law in China is violated. Microsoft's and other companies' codes of conduct have zero impact.

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