China's Youth Meet Microsoft

[Entropic]

Original Source: http://www.nlcnet.org/reports?id=0034
Article: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/new...n-supplier.ars

Management likes the high school students since they are easy to discipline and control. For the same reason, management targets young women 18 to 25 years of age, and some up to 27, to staff its production lines. If management can help it, they will not hire any males-except if they are high school students. It is only when the factory is desperate that they will hire males and workers "as old as 40."

The shifts are not only long, stretching up to 15 hours, the work is also monotonous, numbing and exhausting as the young workers frantically race to complete their mandatory production goals. Twenty or thirty workers on a line must complete 2,000 Microsoft mice in 12 hours. The workers' hands and fingers are constantly moving, many suffering abrasions and cuts, since the connectors must be inserted very closely together. Once workers meet the production goal, management raises it.

The effective take-home wage for the KYE workers was 43 cents an hour, after deductions for food, which averaged $1.20 a day.

Weekday overtime was paid correctly at a 150 percent premium, or 84 cents an hour, as was weekend overtime, paid at double time, or $1.12 per hour.

In April, 2008, a new minimum wage came into effect, of 770 RMB per month, or $112.67, which is still in effect. With the current exchange rate at 6.8344 RMB to $1.00 (U.S.), the new minimum wage is 65 cents an hour. After deductions for food, KYE workers took home 52 cents an hour and $4.16 for an eight-hour day.

As the workers typically had three days off a month, and were working on average 6.25 days a week, this means they were at the factory 92 hours a week, while actually toiling 75 hours.

However, the workers report that this was only part of their real working hours. On average, three nights a week they were kept working to 11:00 p.m. or midnight, for at least an additional 50 minutes, and two-and-a-half hours a week for three nights.

At least four times a month, they were forced to stay until 12:30 a.m. to complete their work. This added another working hour per week.

The sad part about this is that you can't really "vote with your wallet", because chances are even if you switch to a different brand, it still came from this factory or a factory like this.

This is absolutely insane.

[CptSternn]

YOu left out some key parts of the article - if you're going to repost, repost the whole thing, not just cherry pick a few paragraphs.

Other major corporations outsourcing production to KYE include Hewlett Packard, Best Buy, Samsung, Foxconn, Acer, Wi/IFC/Logitech, and Asus

It's not just a Microsoft thing. Even if everyone in the world stopped using MS products because of this, it would not fix the issue as every other major PC manufacture is using the same crowd to produce their stock.

I work with many labour rights groups in my own country. While this may seem appalling, one does have to take in to account that things like pay and hours in one country are not the same as in other countries.

I am against exploiting any labour force, but does anyone know what their pay actually equates to on the local scale? You will find in many of these types of stories that pay appears low to someone looking in from the outside, but the reality is once converted and adjusted to the local currency the workers are making pretty much what they would if they were doing the same job in another country.

Per the hours, again, sometimes this is a choice.

I hope their investigation does shed light on any violations and allows them to fix as well as compensate anyone who was working in adverse conditions, but everyone has to realise that these conditions may or may not be as bad as you think depending on the local laws and what is legally allowed. I'm by no means condoning it, just pointing out that pretty much everything in the world is made in China these days and the labour laws are quite lax when compared to the rest of the world. People like to be outraged by this sort of article, but when it comes to shopping elsewhere or buying products not made in China the average Joe Bloggs has no choice in some cases and can't afford the alternatives in many as well.

[Despanan]

Holy Shit...

Sterrn? Did you just post something intelligent and reasonable?

Props dude.

[Entropic]

Sternn,

1.) I couldn't post the entire article, as it wouldn't fit on a single post. The Ars Technia article isn't nearly as comprehensive as the source material.
2.) I understand your point about it not being just Microsoft, ergo my comment at the bottom of the article.
3.) They addressed the issue of how their wages compare to the subsistence and minimum wage level here: http://www.nlcnet.org/reports?id=0034#wages
4.) They addressed the issue of how their hours were set and enforced here: http://www.nlcnet.org/reports?id=0034#hours
5.) They addressed legality of what the factory is doing throughout the article, with the conclusion coming that there are multiple legal violations.
6.) Again, I understand your point, which is why I said what I said after I posted the article.

tl;dr RTFA.

[KontanKarite]

Can someone tell me where this is a permissible thing in the spirit of human decency when you have workers busting their asses for 6.5 days a week for 15 hours a day? Are the workers choosing to do this kind of work? Because this is pretty excessive.

[Kalitrima]

I'm not sure about this factory in particular, but I've heard a lot of stories about sweat shops and child labor, and. . . it's hard to say, since I don't like to think of it as reality, but pretty much all current first-world countries went through that stage, I believe. Remember in history class, when they used to talk about child labor in the US, while we were still developing? The concept seems horrifying to us now, but it was a reality then. And a lot of the children there have to face the choice of either factory work or prostitution.

The whole thing naturally reeks of one country bending another over and giving it one until its eyes water, but on the flipside, it sounds to be employment and not slavery. They're choosing these jobs, and they're getting paid. While it may not be much to us, it means they can eat and have a place to live. I would assume large companies would follow labor laws for fear of scrutiny. If they aren't, then there's a reason for outrage. But you also have to consider the alternatives for those women, which would probably be either prostitution or starvation. Don't get me wrong, I hate it. But those are the facts as I've heard them.

[KontanKarite]

Word. Honestly, I'd like to see a way to get the American corporations to abide first and foremost to our laws and then to the laws of another country. Imagine having to pony up the dough for all those Chinese workers if they had to get paid 7.50 an hour.

At the end of the day, despite circumstances and allowances, this is some seriously fucked up shit. If your only choice is to slave away for obscene amounts of time or prostitution, then that's not exactly good choices, but more of a social condition that REALLY demands to be addressed.

[Saya]

Yes, often when it comes to sweat shops it is a choice, but only because there were very few other options. Its a big downside to boycotting them, often they really need the work, abysmal as it is. Thats not to say no one should do anything about it, a lot of pressure needs to be put on companies that outsource to hold a standard, even if the country they are outsourcing to doesn't have standards or are very lax about them.

[KontanKarite]

And that's what I was talking about, Saya. A lot of these companies are American based, which tells me that there should be some kind of legislation in place to keep these companies in check in accordance to American standards. And that's because our standards ARE better than that.

Jesus. I hate to say this, cause it's pretty god damned sweeping, but if people can't behave any better than this in a free market, then people don't deserve a free market.

[Kalitrima]

Absolutely. But hopefully, this will work itself out. People get money, people spend money on things, the economy grows, the standard of living (again, hopefully) improves. When it can afford to, the government passes laws to raise the minimum wage some. And then a little more, and a little more. . . I'm just being hopelessly optimistic at this point, aren't I?

[Saya]

Yeah, I wrote that while you were posting it, Kontan, great minds think alike?

Originally Posted by Kalitrima

Absolutely. But hopefully, this will work itself out. People get money, people spend money on things, the economy grows, the standard of living (again, hopefully) improves. When it can afford to, the government passes laws to raise the minimum wage some. And then a little more, and a little more. . . I'm just being hopelessly optimistic at this point, aren't I?

Yes you are. Nobody really gives out rights, you have to fight for them.

[KontanKarite]

I just fucking hate seeing ethics and human decency be ignored just because the rule books allow it, which brings shit like this to light.

Now some libertarian asshole might argue that if that kind of legislation was passed, it would raise the prices of our products. Well guess what? FUCK THAT AND THEIR PRECIOUS FUCKING PROFIT. If their profits stem from this kind of suffering, they seriously need to be dealt with.

[Tam Li Hua]

China's a seriously messed-up place, for this reason and others. But, for some reason, I sometimes still miss it.

Chances are that the students are pressured into this work by their families, since a higher education [and thus a decent, humane job] is WAY more costly and difficult to obtain over there than it is over here. But no, it's not a slavery, government-mandated kind of thing, I don't think.

Edit: BTW, the new emoticons are awesome! Kudos, Gnet!

[CptSternn]

Originally Posted by Saya

Yes, often when it comes to sweat shops it is a choice, but only because there were very few other options. Its a big downside to boycotting them, often they really need the work, abysmal as it is. Thats not to say no one should do anything about it, a lot of pressure needs to be put on companies that outsource to hold a standard, even if the country they are outsourcing to doesn't have standards or are very lax about them.

Whereas I would agree with you 100%, it is not feasible to do anything.

How so you may ask?

Ever see that episode of South Park where they take on Wal-Mart? Wal-Mart buys like 95% of all of its stock from China. These are the products being made there. Until Americans stop shopping at Wal-Mart and other discount retailers, then don't expect any change.

...and waiting for that could take decades at the least, especially considering the economic climate in America right now.

As Americans (and many Europeans these days since Wal-Mart bought Asda) are always looking to save a few cent on every product they buy, then China will always be churning out this stuff with lax labour laws. It's the simple law of supply and demand.