In November 2019, labour rights NGO China Labour Watch (CLW) released a report raising allegations of labour abuses faced by workers at five factories producing for international toy brands in Guangdong Province, China. Abuses documented by CLW include low wages, excessive overtime, inadequate health and safety protections, poor living conditions in worker dormitories, restrictions to freedom of association, discrimination, sexual harassment and gender-based violence. Brand companies (including Disney, Lego, BuzzBee etc.) are taking actions.
News
Collected news links from external sources related to topics concerning the Book Chain Project.
China: Investigation finds labour abuse & sexual harassment at toy factories producing for international brands; Includes company responses
- Labour & Environment
- Business and Human Rights
- China
- BuzzBee
- China Labour Watch
- Discrimination
- Disney
- excessive overtime
- gender-based violence
- Guangdong Province
- inadequate health and safety protections
- Labour abuse
- labour abuse & sexual harassment
- labour rights NGO
- Lego
- Low wages
- Poor living conditions
- restrictions to freedom of association
- sexual harassment
Abuse is daily reality for female garment workers for Gap and H&M, says report
Pressure to meet fast fashion deadlines is leading to women working in Asian factories supplying Gap and H&M being sexually and physically abused, according to two separate reports published by Global Labour Justice on gender-based violence in garment supply chains. More than 540 female workers at factories that supply the Gap and H&M have described incidents of threats and abuse. The reports claim that these allegations recorded between January and May this year in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, are a direct result of pressure for quick turnarounds and low overheads. Gap and H&M are going to investigate the allegations and they welcome initiatives to tackle violence, including an ILO convention.
Under 16 and working 16 hours a day ... Chinese clothes factories import cheap child labour from across China
Undercover investigation exposed a large portion of the more than 1,000 apparel manufacturers in Changshu, Jiangsu province, have been using cheap labour from Yunnan province with the help of local agents, and some of the workers are under 16. The workers are underpaid and forced to work for long hours. Forced labour practices such as violence and retention of identity documents were found.
'They're killing us': world's most endangered tribe cries for help
Article covering the new campaign by Survival International, backed by Colin Firth, which looks at the plight of one of the last remaining nomadic hunter-gathering Amazonian tribes whose existence is under threat from the activities and violence carried out by illegal loggers and cattle ranchers. Despite the overall decrease in the rate of deforestation in Brazil, the state which is home to the threatened tribe has recorded a sharp rise in deforestation.