Brazil sues Samsung over conditions at factory

Brazil has filed a lawsuit against Samsung alleging poor working conditions at a factory in the Amazon and is demanding more than US$100 million in damages.

The Ministry of Labour said staff worked up to 15 hours a day, including 10 hours on their feet, and sometimes for 27 days straight.

The audit was performed at the Manaus plant, one of the largest of Samsung's 25 factories worldwide. The facility employs 6,000 workers and supplies all of Latin America.

The South Korean electronics giant "subjects its employees to the risk of illness from repetitive activity and the intense pace of work on the assembly line", the ministry said.

According to a report on the website of the Tribuna Hoje newspaper, workers at the plant are given just six seconds to place a phone with its battery, charger, earphones and instruction manual in its packaging. Individual workers can repeat this process up to 6,800 times a shift.

The report said workers were given 4.8 seconds to place a television in its cardboard packaging, while the assembly of a smartphone - involving dozens of workers on a production line - was clocked at 85 seconds.