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Wal-Mart Standards Fail in China, Worker Rights Abused, Report Shows
November 25, 2009Workers making shoes, Christmas lights, tools, curtains and paper boxes sold at Wal-Mart stores labor in illegal and degrading conditions. China Labor Watch's latest investigation of five Wal-Mart supplier factories reveals that not a single factory has implemented Wal-Mart's basic standards, and a total of 10,000 workers included in the report suffer serious rights abuses. "This is not about a single factory, but about Wal-Mart's inability to implement its standards," says CLW Executive Director, Li Qiang. In the report, CLW attributes this failure to ineffective auditing and a pricing structure that forces factories to sell goods at unsustainable prices. As the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart leverages its massive product orders to purchase goods at low prices, and workers suffer the financial burden. As Wal-Mart gears up for holiday sales, workers at all five factories work at least 3 hours of overtime/day, for 100-140 total hours of overtime/month, and one factory routinely schedules overtime through the night. Two of the factories illegally underpay overtime wages at rates as low as $0.44/hour, and two withhold wages from workers who fail to meet production quotas. Workers' low wages are further undermined by excessive fines and unpaid days off or maternity leave, and some workers cannot even purchase social security! Full release.