Amazon supplier draws fire for labor conditions
SAN FRANCISCO – The Chinese plant where Amazon’s popular Echo Dot smart speakers are assembled underpaid workers, some of whom worked as many as 14 consecutive days and more than 100 overtime hours a month, a U.S.-based labor rights group says.
Amazon says it knew of problems at the plant and has requested corrective action.
The report by China Labor Watch found the Foxconn plant in Hengyang in China broke multiple Chinese labor laws, underpaying workers and subjecting them to verbal abuse. More than 40 percent of the staff there were temporary employees, while China only allows 10 percent of any workforce to be temps.
Taiwan-based Foxconn, officially Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., had been dogged for more than a decade by reports of labor abuses, mandatory long hours, unpaid overtime, poor working conditions and high rates of suicide among its workers. Much of the reporting has centered around Apple’s iPhone, as Foxconn is one of the primary assemblers of the popular smartphones.
Foxconn is planning to build a $10 billion electronics factory in Racine County, Wisconsin. The company said Monday it plans to employ as many as 13,000 across the state.
Until now, Amazon has not been subject to as much bad press over labor conditions overseas, in part because it made so few devices. The growing popularity of its Echo series of smart speakers has meant the Seattle-based com- pany is increasingly prominent as a device manufacturer.
Both Kindles and Echo Dots are assembled at the Hengyang Foxconn plant. The 94-page China Labor Watch report found temp workers were not paid overtime and unlike full-time workers did not receive sufficient safety training.
The Amazon Dot retails for $49.99. According to China Labor Watch; the temp workers earn $2.26 per hour.
Worker safety is an ongoing problem in Chinese plants. A fire in a restaurant workers’ dormitory in Jiangsu Province in China last July killed at least 22 workers.
In a statement to USA TODAY, Foxconn said it is conducting an investigation into the issues reported by China Labor Watch.