Stefan Mileschin

Redfaced Samsung has confirmed that some of its suppliers operating in China are operating sweatshops.

The company had been accused of using child labour in China, but Samsung's own investigations could not find evidence of that. However, it did find that that some of its suppliers were running operations which could have made it into a Charles Dickens novel of the 19th century.

It inspected 105 suppliers who produce components purely for Samsung products. Samsung found "overtime hours in excess of local regulations, management of supplier companies holding copies of labour contracts, and the imposition of a system of fines for lateness or absences".

According to the Verge, the company has promised to rectify those problems and promises to stamp out discrimination and fines. It also wants to increase health and safety standards.

Factories will be required to provide "additional training for managers on sexual harassment and physical and verbal abuse". We assume they want to stamp it out, rather than improve it.

All this will be a long term project, so it will be a while before the plants are up to scratch.

Apple also had similar problems with its suppliers in China. Its supplier, Foxconn, dragged students away from their studies on "work experience" to make sure that the toys got to the shops in time.

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