World Cup mascot factory told to halt output over poor working conditions

A Shanghai factory employing low-paid migrant workers has had its contract to make souvenir mascots for the 2010 football World Cup suspended following a report into factory conditions in the Sunday Morning Post.

The Global Brands Group, which awarded the contract to make 2.3 million souvenirs of official mascot Zakumi, said last week it had called for production to stop until conditions had improved.

The decision follows a report in the Post last month looking into conditions at Shanghai Fashion Plastic Products, where workers said they earned a basic salary of 800 yuan (HK$900) a month and had 160 yuan deducted for bed and board.

The report included interviews with workers about conditions and long working hours, and showed how waste from the painting process ran from the factory into a stinking canal, putrid with industrial discharge.

Boasting about how he wished he could make a million more of the figurines that will sell for the equivalent of 300 yuan each, the factory's chief executive officer David Lau told a reporter posing as a trader: 'I'm not a big fan of football - but I am a big fan of money.'

The Global Brands Group, licensed to make official World Cup products, said it conducted an audit of the company following the revelations and found it failed to meet the standards required of the supplier.

'The approval for this factory to manufacture these figurines has been temporarily suspended, affording them the opportunity to put in place corrective actions and measures,' the Global Brands Group.