Apple Supplier Pegatron Workers in Kunshan Stage Protest Over Owed Wages
Thursday, December 31, 2020
At 9:00 am Beijing time on December 31, 2020, hundreds of dispatch (temporary) workers from Pegatron’s factory in Kunshan gathered by the recruitment center of the factory, protesting that their promised bonuses were deducted for no reason.
Pegatron Kunshan recently announced a reduction of 10% of the promised bonuses for all dispatch workers who started producing iPhones at the factory in September, and forced these workers to go to labor dispatch companies located in the factory to sign documents to agree to these changes.
Pegatron Kunshan did not respect the rights of newly recruited workers in early September. A short video went viral on Chinese social media of Pegatron recruitment managers deliberately throwing new workers’ ID cards on the ground for workers to pick up. After the incident was exposed, a large number of workers resigned and Apple’s orders could not be completed on schedule. In mid-September, thousands of temporary workers were recruited during the peak production season of Apple's iPhones. These workers were promised that they would receive a bonus of more than 10,000 yuan after working for 55 work days. However, after the workers had worked in the factory for 55 days, they still did not receive their bonuses. In mid-December, the workers were told that they could not receive their promised bonuses in full, and the factory and labor dispatch companies located inside the factory began to intimidate and threaten workers for various reasons, maliciously lowering and defaulting on the promised bonuses. Therefore, workers organized the protest, hoping to put pressure on Pegatron through large-scale collective actions to defend their rights and refused to sign documents agreeing to cut their pay.
On December 19, there were nearly a thousand workers protesting at Pegatron’s factory in Shanghai over the same issue. Dozens of Pegatron workers were arrested and detained. There was also a mass protest in November by thousands of workers from Foxconn Chengdu, a factory producing iPad and the Watch for Apple, asking for owed wages.
At around 10:00 am Beijing time on December 31, 2020, hundreds of protesters began marching towards the People’s Government of Lujia Town, Kunshan City. Workers continued to join in on the road and the group soon reached nearly a thousand protesters. Angry workers shouted "We refuse to accept the 10% reduction, give back our wages” and kept marching forward. Several riot police cars were driving slowly side by side with the marching workers. There were also many riot police wearing bulletproof vests standing on the sidewalk. Shortly after the march started, riot police knocked down and took away at least six male and female workers at the scene.
China Labor Watch believes that withholding wages to force workers to work at factories is a form of forced labor. Because Pegatron is unwilling to provide workers with long-term stable work contracts, a huge number of temporary workers are recruited by labor dispatch companies during peak season, which often account for more than 40% of the total number of Pegatron’s workers. It is also a serious violation of China’s labor law which limits temporary dispatch workers to 10% of the total number of workers.
Li Qiang, executive director of China Labor Watch, wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook on September 8th, 2020 bringing to his attention the wage issues of dispatch workers. But Apple replied that they had found no issues regarding the non payment of wages. The frequent large-scale protests at Apple’s supplier factories over unpaid wages in China reveals the failure of Apple’s audit system to protect workers’ rights.
苹果代工厂和硕工人再度发起维权抗议拖欠返费
2020年12月31日北京时间早上9点左右，几百名世硕电子（昆山）有限公司的工人聚集在位于江苏昆山世硕工厂招募中心楼下，抗议承诺的返费奖金被无理由扣减。
昆山世硕在近日发布了将9月份进厂工作的工人应得的返费奖金统一削减百分之十的公告，并强迫这些工人去驻厂的劳务派遣公司那里签字同意。
昆山世硕在9月初招工时因为不尊重员工人权，企业招聘管理人员故意将工人厂牌身份证扔到地上让工人去捡的事件曝光后，大量工人辞职导致订单无法按期完成，在9月中下旬苹果手机生产旺季期间招募了大量派遣工人。派遣公司承诺他们在工作满55个工作日之后可以得到一万多元人民币的返费奖金。但是12月中旬工人工作期满之后，却被告知自己不能得到全部承诺的奖金，并且厂区和驻厂劳务派遣开始以各种理由恐吓威胁工人，恶意压低和拖欠返费。所以工人们自发组织起来，希望通过大规模的维权抗议集体行动来给和硕施加压力，拒绝签署同意削减返费的文件。
在12月19日和硕的上海昌硕工厂也发生了近千名派遣工人因为拿不到全部返费而举行的抗议，有几十名昌硕工人被逮捕和拘留。在此之前11月份发生了生产iPad和iWatch的代工厂成都富士康上千名工人讨要返费的大规模抗议。
北京时间10点左右，几百名参与抗议的世硕工人开始集体向昆山市陆家镇人民政府方向步行，路上不断有新赶过来的工人加入，逐渐增加到上千名工人一边呼喊“拒绝九折，还我返费”的口号一边前进。现场有多辆防暴警车和在人行道上步行的抗议工人并排行进，在人行道上也有大量穿着防弹背心的警察，武装警察在现场打倒并拉走了至少6名男女工人。
中国劳工观察认为扣押承诺的工资强迫工人留在工厂继续工作是一种强迫劳动。和硕因为不愿意给工人提供长期稳定的工作合同，在生产旺季大量使用临时的派遣工人，经常占到工人总数的40%以上，严重违反了中国劳动法派遣工人不能不能超过工人总数的10%的规定。
中国劳工观察执行主任李强在2020年9月8日写信给苹果CEO Tim Cook谈苹果代工派遣工工资的问题，但苹果回信说没有发现拖欠工人工资的问题。苹果在中国代工厂频繁发生的大规模工人维权讨薪的抗议说明了苹果的审计制度在保护工人权益方面的失败