The child workers used fake names to enter HEG. CLW also provided Samsung with
a list of some of these child workers who were employed in a Samsung department of HEG under fake names.
HEG and Samsung are now covering up the truth to protect their interests and reputation. HEG will likely lose business from Samsung if they are found to be using child labor again. Samsung has a zero tolerance labor policy that it wants to avoid invoking. Samsung also has a strong interest in showing that it has made improvements after CLW revealed the use of child workers and other labor violations in Samsung's supply chain over and over. (
All CLW reports on labor violations in Samsung's supply chain.)
This lawsuit is a public relations tactic meant to bolster HEG's and Samsung's image. But the exploitation of child workers and other labor violations are a systemic problem in Samsung’s supply chain. These labor abuses are symptoms of Samsung’s cost structuring and management of its supply chain. Factories like HEG operate on slim margins, and labor costs are suppressed through long hours, low pay, unpaid overtime, inadequate safety training and equipment, and the employment and exploitation of child and student workers. The real solution to solving these problems should be a systemic effort by Samsung to ensure that its supplier factories are not exploiting labor to maintain profit.
It is also critical to note that while HEG and Samsung have focused this lawsuit on child labor, the employment and exploitation of underage workers is only one among a list of legal violations at HEG, including hiring age limits, unpaid wages, overtime in excess of legal limits, underpaid social insurance, potential overuse of dispatch workers, and inability for workers to resign via normal channels, leading to unpaid compensation. Give the number of infringements at HEG, it’s ironic that HEG wants to defend its labor conditions in a court of law.
CLW Executive Director Li Qiang said, “This lawsuit is a public relations action by HEG and Samsung to cover-up their labor exploitation. If they were serious, HEG and Samsung would file the lawsuit in America.”
About China Labor WatchFounded in 2000, China Labor Watch is an independent not-for-profit organization. For more than a decade, CLW has collaborated with labor organizations and the media to conduct in-depth assessments of factories in China that produce toys, bikes, shoes, furniture, clothing, and electronics for some of the world’s largest brand companies. CLW’s New York office creates reports from these investigations, educates the international community on supply chain labor issues, and pressures corporations to improve conditions for workers.
Contact(For English)
Kevin Slaten
Program Coordinator, China Labor Watch
E-mail: clw@chinalaborwatch.org
Phone: +001 212-244-4049
147 W 35 St Ste 406
New York, NY 10001
(For Chinese)
Li Qiang
Executive Director, China Labor Watch
E-mail: clw@chinalaborwatch.org
Phone: +001 212-244-4049