Hong Kong firm making Disney toys in China under investigation for mistreating workers
Anna and Elsa from Frozen are hugely popular with children worldwide, but for the people making them, life is no fairy tale. China Labor Watch went into a factory in China owned by Hong Kong company Tai Nam Industrial to check conditions
They are the dolls cherished by little girls the world over – princess figures of Anna and Elsa from the hugely successful Disney film Frozen. Behind the glamour of the fairy-tale heroines sold in Disney stores and theme parks worldwide is a cruel reality: thousands of migrant workers living unacceptably harsh “Cinderella” lives in the factories that make the toys.
One Hong Kong company called Tai Nam Industrial that produces thousands of Frozen toys a day and has manufactured for Disney for years is under investigation after claims that it breaches labour laws and treats workers unfairly.
New York-based China Labor Watch says conditions at Tai Nam’s Zhenyang factory in Qingxi Town, Dongguan, were “horrifying”, with workers having to work 66 hours a week for hourly wages of between US$1.30 and US$1.50.
In a report titled the “Dark World of Disney”, the pressure group, which placed an undercover investigator in the factory for a week in May, says some migrant workers work non-stop for 11 hours with only a one-hour meal and rest break.
“Workers don’t complain about overtime and in fact are looking for more overtime hours. This is because their wages are too low, and the only means of raising their income is by working more overtime,” the report says.
If a worker comes to the factory one minute late, or leaves one minute early, they are fined half a day’s salary. If a worker is absent for three days, they are automatically fired