After coming under great conditions for having poor working conditions in manufacturing plants in China, Samsung Electronics Co. released a statement Thursday indicating that it intends to improve conditions.
According to the ZD Net, the vice president of the company's Human Resource department said, "Samsung will work with the China Labor Watch (CLW) to introduce a better work environment."
In addition he also stated, "Multinationals are increasingly opting for outsourcing for various reasons. But at Samsung, out of over 200,000 staff worldwide, more than half are manufacturing jobs, which indicates we are very much a manufacturing-driven company and it is where our core strength is. Samsung manufactures more than 90 percent of our products internally and only relies on contractors for peripheral products such as components, feature phones and handset cases," as reported by ZD Net.
Only weeks after losing $1.05 billion in an infringement case with Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. finds itself in another major controversy of violating China's labor laws. According to the New York labor rights group called China Labor Watch, the South Korean company is engaged in knowingly violating China's child labor laws. The company is also accused of mistreating its workers.
China Labor Watch has discovered that Samsung in at least eight factories across China had employees working under rough conditions with over 100 hours per month of overtime, underpaid wages, inadequate safety measures to ensure workers safety and even in some instances employees were subjected to physical abuse.
Samsung responded to the accusations partially admitting to the stressful conditions in its factories, releasing a statement through the company spokesman James Chung as follows: "We frequently review our manufacturing facilities regarding overtime work. We will re-evaluate working hour practices...When new production lines are completed or new products are launched, high demand has led to overtime work," as reported by the Associated Press.
However, the company was quick to deny any allegations of abuse or being involved any violations of labor laws in China. Chung was adamant that the company had a "zero tolerance" for hiring underage workers.
However according to reports by the China Labor Watch, "Even when they suffered unfair treatment, workers at almost factory lacked any effective channel by which to express grievances to management," as reported by the Associated Press.
The electronics giant said that it will audit various factories and around 250 companies in its supply chain by 2012 in order to ensure no such violations are taking place.
