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Martin Wong

TOYS sold with McDonald's meals are being made with the help of child labourers who work 16 hours a day and earn 1.5 yuan an hour in sweatshop conditions.

City Toys Ltd in Shajing, Shenzhen, employs children as young as 14 who work from 7am until as late as midnight for 24 yuan (about HK$23) a day, packing toys for McDonald's.

The company - a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Pleasure Tech Holdings Ltd - is contracted to produce the toys by McDonald's supplier Simon Marketing (Hong Kong) Ltd. City Toys director, Hong Kong businessman Jack Lau Kim-hung, told the Sunday Morning Post  yesterday that he 'knew nothing about the underage workers' and would try to find out.

Young workers at the factory say they produce Snoopy, Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty and other toys sold with McDonald's meals in Hong Kong and in branches of the fast-food chain around the world.

A Post  investigation has found that underage workers use fake ID cards to get jobs at the factory and are estimated to make up about 20 per cent of the workforce.

Last night, McDonald's issued a statement saying it had a strict code of practice governing labour rights - including a clause outlawing child labour - and carried out periodic audits.

It had no reason to believe its supplier was in breach of the code of conduct.

Simon Marketing spokeswoman Vivian Foo denied the plant employed child labour and said regular announced and unannounced audits were carried out. The most recent one in May had seen City Toys fully comply with McDonald's code.

When asked if it was aware that youngsters used forged identity documents to falsify their age so they could work at the factory, Ms Foo replied: 'We have to go on the documents. It's not a wishy-washy process, it is thorough.'

But the Post  found youngsters living in crowded dormitories next to the factory who said they only got one or two days off a month.

Their only entertainment was old films shown at the factory. They dared not venture out to see prosperous Shenzhen as they were unable to pay the 350-yuan permit fee.

Without such a permit, workers are not allowed to work in Shenzhen under mainland law.

The Christian Industrial Committee, a labour union that visited the factory on a number of occasions over the past two months, said the firm was exploiting workers. The group estimates that of the 2,000 workers in the factory, more than 400 are underage.

'All people aged under 16 are forbidden to work in China,' said researcher Parry Leung Pak-nang. The firm was breaching the mainland's labour ordinance on minimum wage and minimum age, he claimed.

Monina Wong, another of the group's researchers, said: 'McDonald's and all the transnational corporations should stop employing child labour. They should respect mainland laws.'

Hiring underage workers carries a fine of 3,000 to 5,000 yuan. Different places in the mainland have various wage requirements, which are calculated according to the area's conditions.

'At Shajing town, the minimum wage is 419 yuan a month in 2000,' Mr Leung said, explaining that the minimum wage was on the basis that a worker does eight hours a day, five days a week. 'The firm therefore is against the ordinance.'

Mr Leung said many of the underage workers they interviewed used forged identity cards to get work.

'However, we believe the company knows they are underage as the girls look very young. We did see the fake IDs they showed us, and the pictures looked nothing like them.'

Asia Monitor Resource Centre, a labour monitoring body, said it was common for people to use fake ID cards to get work.

'Child labour is a common problem in China, It exists in rural small firms and big factories run by transnational enterprises,' said May Wong Yuet-may, project co-ordinator of the group.

She said many children living in the poor provinces such as Sichuan, Guizhou, Henan and Hunan wanted to work in Shenzhen or Dongguan where there were many firms and a demand for labour.

She said the firms knew that children used forged IDs. 'They accept it and sometimes even the district government helps the firms to cover up. Government officials even risk breaking the law in order to lure more investment to help the development of the area.'

The latest report by the International Labour Organisation revealed that among children aged 10 to 14 on the mainland, 11.6 per cent were working, which translates into 13.3 million youngsters.



Children toil in sweatshop