“While Bloomberg was reporting on Friday that Samsung had reported a record operating profit jumping to 91 percent, I was reading a scathing report titled ‘Samsung Factory Exploiting Child Labor,’ which made me wonder: did Samsung’s huge leap in profits come off the backs of child laborers?” Jack Purcher asks for Patently Apple.
“Members of China Labor Watch (CWL) who were responsible for the report stated that they ‘were stunned by the results of the investigation of HEG Electronics, which showed that the practice of hiring child labor is prevalent in this factory,'” Purhcer reports. “HEG Electronics is an important partner of South Korea’s Samsung, processing such products as mobile phones, DVDs, stereo equipment and MP3s for Samsung.”
Purcher writes, “The report went on to state that CLW’s research indicated that student laborers amount to 80% of the total workforce in the factory. During their follow up investigations, their investigators suspected that there were a large number of child laborers in other departments of the factory, estimating that there may be 50 to 100 children working there. These children were working under the same harsh conditions as adult workers, but were paid only 70% of the wages when compared with the formal employees. Moreover, these child workers were often required to carry-out dangerous tasks that resulted in injury.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: CNET reported that six of the factories in which abuse occurred were directly operated by Samsung.
Slavish, indeed.
As always: Boycott Samsung-branded products.
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