2 April, 2012
In February the Play Fair campaign – a coalition of trade unions and NGOs including the ITGLWF and the International Trade Union Confederation - published a report highlighting code of conduct abuses in factories producing merchandise for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Play Fair researchers interviewed a range of workers from two factories in China – one producing pin badges and the second producing stuffed toys of the Olympic mascots.
The organisers of the London Olympics – LOCOG – have a code of conduct which states that “To every extent possible work performed must be on the basis of recognised employment relationship established through national law and practice” and “Obligations to employees under labour or social security laws and regulations arising from the regular employment relationship shall not be avoided through the use of labour-only contracting…”.
Despite the strong language in the code, Play Fair’s researchers found that workers in one of the factories had no idea of the terms of their contract, and had never been provided with a written contract of employment. Not a single worker interviewed for the research was employed on a permanent contract.
At a second factory researchers found that core workers were employed on five-year fixed term contracts and that during periods of high orders the factory hired about 300 temporary workers, more than doubling the workforce. These temporary workers were employed on a daily wage and received only 40 CNY rather than the statutory minimum of 50 CNY per day. Temporary workers were not provided with social security payments.
The full report is available here.