Representative Christopher H. Smith, Chair
Senator Jeff Merkley, Cochair
Teachers Arrange for Underage "Interns" to Work at Guangdong Electronics Factory
October 4, 2006
Teachers at a school in Shaanxi province arranged for a total of about 600 students to be employed in an electronics factory in Dongguan city, Guangdong province, according to an April 12 report (in Chinese) in Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper. At the time of the report, more than 240 students were working on the factory's assembly lines up to 14 hours a day under the arrangement, which was called "practical training." Although Chinese law permits vocational students to work as interns, they must be between 16 and 18 years old. Some of the students working at the factory were not yet 16, according to the report.
Teachers at a school in Shaanxi province arranged for a total of about 600 students to be employed in an electronics factory in Dongguan city, Guangdong province, according to an April 12 report (in Chinese) in Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper. At the time of the report, more than 240 students were working on the factory's assembly lines up to 14 hours a day under the arrangement, which was called "practical training." Although Chinese law permits vocational students to work as interns, they must be between 16 and 18 years old. Some of the students working at the factory were not yet 16, according to the report.
The Ta Kung Pao reporter interviewed a student who said that he received only one yuan (US $0.12) after working more than 10 hours per day for 15 days. The remainder of his wages went to his teacher for "safekeeping." The student also said that the teacher promised the students that their entire tuition would be paid if they worked at the factory for six months. The teacher also said the students could be admitted directly to high school without taking the entrance examination. A member of the vocational education staff explained to the Ta Kung Pao reporter that the school endorsed the students' employment as a "work-study program."
A Chinese-South Korean joint venture electronics company owns the factory and employed about 1,000 vocational students from Hunan, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Shaanxi provinces, according to the Shenzhen Daily.
More cases of children working in Chinese factories have been reported over the past year, an expert on Chinese labor issues commented in the April 26 edition of CSR Asia Weekly. Although they may legally employ interns, factory management abuses these internship programs when they rely on students as a large percentage of their work force and do not pay them fairly for work performed, he said. Other abuses occur when entrepreneurs set up unregistered vocational schools to place underage “students” in factory jobs for a fee.