Hasta La Gadget!

We know that HP’s Chinese sub-contractors enjoy a spot of opera on the production line. What’s always been harder to determine though, is who those workers are and what employment rights they have. In an effort to preempt the sort of headlines that have afflicted other brands, HP has issued new guidelines to its Chinese partners — including Foxconn — designed to limit the use of students and temporary personnel and give those people more control over their hours.

Students often seek work during vacations, but high schools close to factories have also been known to pressure their pupils into taking on shifts during bouts of heavy demand — even if it’s to the detriment of their studies. That won’t do for a global manufacturer that needs to be seen as education friendly, so from now on “interns” will only be accepted for work that tallies with their course area, and the School Administrator will just have to find his kickbacks elsewhere.

Filed under: Misc, HP

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Source: New York Times

Working conditions at Foxconn plants are well known to just about everyone at this point. And while executives have been paying lip service to improvements for years, it seems that things are finally looking up. But the improved conditions come at a cost. More »

On the face of it, Samsung’s latest report on working conditions at the factories of its Chinese suppliers follows just the kind of careful, lawyer-scrutinized language we’d expect from a big multinational. It repeats the manufacturer’s earlier insistence that no children have been employed, while at the same time admitting that there have been “several instances of inadequate practices at the facilities” concerning workers being made to do too much overtime, not being given proper contracts, and being fined if they turn up late or are absent — issues which had already been revealed at one supplier, and which Samsung promises to fix by the end of 2014.

Burrow further into the document, however, and Samsung’s list of promised “corrective actions” implies that its internal investigation has uncovered evidence of other serious problems. These include “physical and verbal abuse,” sexual harassment, a lack of first-aid equipment and inadequate safety training. Some information is also conspicuous by its absence — at least in the short report linked below — including clarity on how widespread any of these failings were among the 109 companies (and 65,000 employees) that have now been audited. Did they crop up at just a handful of factories, or were they endemic across China? We have no idea, but given how much data Samsung has now dutifully amassed, it surely does. We’ve asked the company for more detail and will update if we hear back.

Filed under: Misc, Samsung

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Source: Samsung

Canon could be facing a costly drop in production of both its digital cameras and laser printers, following reports that widespread protests in China have forced it close most of its factories in that country. It’s a similar story at Panasonic, which is said to have had one of its plants “sabotaged” by Chinese workers. The anti-Japan protests concern the status of disputed islands in the East China Sea and were triggered by the Japanese government’s move to purchase some of the land in question — check the More Coverage link below for a more detailed explanation.

Filed under: Cameras, Misc, Home Entertainment

Canon and Panasonic halt production in China amid anti-Japan protests originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 09:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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