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Students accuse Coca-Cola of mistreatment

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Activists claim drinks giant is flouting the law on contract staff

Student activists have accused Coca-Cola of flouting mainland labour laws by mistreating contract workers at five bottling plants in Guangdong and Zhejiang .

While the students said they had not found any problems in the treatment of the soft-drinks giant's directly employed staff, their report claimed there was widespread abuse of contract and 'other non-regular employees', who were often overworked, underpaid and underfed.

'These workers are at the lowest level in the Coca-Cola Company, doing the most dangerous, toughest and most tiring work,' said the online report, which was picked up by mainland media yesterday.

'Their working hours are the longest but their pay is the lowest, and what's more they are paid late and even have their pay docked.'

The nine students - from the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing and other universities in Hangzhou and Guangdong - have also released an open letter to mainland sports superstars Yao Ming and Liu Xiang , both of whom have advertising contracts with the American-owned multinational.

'We hope [you] can exert some pressure on the Coca-Cola Company you represent to improve the workers' conditions,' the students wrote in their letter.

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