Group slams Disney over labor abuses in factories

By Wendy Leung
The Standard
Sep. 10, 2006

Guangdong factories producing merchandise for Walt Disney are still ill- treating their workers by underpaying them and making them overwork, according to a concern group.

A report released Sunday by the Hong Kong-based Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, or SACOM, accused three factories in the province of gross violation of mainland labor laws and called for immediate action to halt the malpractices.

It said the workers, besides being underpaid and forced to work overtime, were also not offered occupational insurance.

The group made the findings after interviewing 50 workers from three factories in Shenzhen and Zhuhai in July and August - the second time it has investigated working conditions in factories producing Disney merchandise.

Last year it found workers at four other factories in Dongguan, Shenzhen and Zhongshan being exploited by their bosses.

The latest claims drew a curt response from Walt Disney's corporate communications director, Alannah Goss, who said the company took the allegations very seriously and would investigate thoroughly.

"Our first priority is to ensure the safety and well-being of employees," said Goss, adding Disney has a strong international labor code of conduct for manufacturers, and carries out regular social compliance audits on independently run factories.

However, SACOM spokeswoman Vivien Yau Tze-wei said their new report proved that Disney's regular audits were "useless."

Yau said: "Workers are offered 70 yuan [HK$68.60] as a reward by the factories if they help them cover up the truth when asked by auditors.

"We have also followed up on the four factories whose workers we interviewed last year, but none of them had made any improvement in treating their employees."

Disney had said a year ago it would "take these claims very seriously" and would investigate them diligently after SACOM released its findings on the four factories.

The concern group urged the entertainment giant to honor its social responsibility by monitoring the behavior of its suppliers with "real action."

According to the group's latest findings, workers at the three factories are underpaid and receive an hourly wage of 2.19 yuan to 3.41 yuan, instead of the legal wage requirement of 4.02 yuan to 4.12 yuan per hour. "Some of the workers are forced to work up to 14 hours every day and 30 days a month, and all of them are denied overtime pay," Yau said.

One of the factories - in Zhuhai - even failed to pay the workers as promised, Yau said.

"None of the three factories offers insurance protection against occupational injury or medical and retirement benefits to their workers, in breach of mainland labor laws," she said.

The group said it was also shocked to find that one factory in Shenzhen has no standard fire prevention measures, not even a fire extinguisher.

Hong Kong Disneyland spokeswoman Glendy Chu Yee-lin said the Hong Kong park does not sell merchandise produced by any of the three factories investigated by SACOM.

The factories concerned supply their products to other Disney theme parks.

SACOM members Sunday held a protest outside Hong Kong Disneyland's main entrance at Penny's Bay, shouting slogans to highlight the plight of the factory workers in Guangdong. The protesters also bought a cake with the words "Disclose the figures" and sang songs urging Disney to be more transparent about releasing figures on the theme park's revenue and attendance.

The Hong Kong government is the park's biggest shareholder, holding 57 percent of the joint venture with Walt Disney.

Disney managing director Bill Ernest said last week the theme park had attracted more than five million visitors in its first year of operation, but is not expected to hit its target of 5.6 million on its first anniversary tomorrow.

A Disney source said the theme park was about 6 percent short of target.