Samsung Corp. has to be feeling a little picked on these days. Mere weeks after it lost a patent battle with Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), a watchdog agency has reported that Samsung is violating workers' rights.
According to Wall Street Journal and BBC reports, China Labor Watch found incidents of forced overtime, underage workers, and poor working conditions in a number of Samsung factories. Samsung owns several factories in China and outsources to others.
The charges are similar to those that have been directed at Apple, which outsources much of its manufacturing to Foxconn Electronics Inc. After its accusations surfaced, Apple agreed to let a third party audit Foxconn's facilities. The BBC says Samsung has not agreed to third-party audits. This is clearly a mistake. Already a high-profile company, Samsung will be in the spotlight for the foreseeable future as it battles the Apple verdict. The labor charges won't just disappear. Even if Samsung weren't in the spotlight, investigating these allegations would be the right thing to do.
Samsung hasn't faced nearly as much outrage as Apple did, and I have to wonder why. Is it because Apple is a US company and should know better? Is it because Apple is a bigger target? Or is it because people are no longer surprised these conditions exist?
I'm going with the last reason. There seems to be a kind of apathy around the topic now that Apple is fixing its problems. (For one thing, Foxconn has raised its wages.) But if we are to accept the California court's decision that Samsung's products are just like Apple's, it's not a stretch to assume they are built in factories just like Apple's.
The last time EBN was covering this issue, a reader made a good point. Instead of haranguing companies, shouldn't we be putting pressure on the Chinese government? It's no coincidence that all these reports are coming out of China. If you look hard enough, you'll find workers being abused at a lot more factories that are associated with brand names.
As bad as things look for Samsung, the company should be pressured to improve its working conditions. At the very least, it should let a third party inspect the factories.
Exactly SP. You need laws or policies or whatever which can be executed in practical issues. No law carries any value if its not being utilized in ptactical scenarios/
What share of the responsibility should the Chinese gvmnt take? They should look after their workers and I'm sure they have enough power to penalize Apple, Samsung or any other company if they find abuses.
@Jacob: this repot was only for China, and not all of Samsung's factories in China. It was also issed by an organization called China Labor Watch. This doesn't necessarily mean these conditions don't exist elsewhere--the spotlight is on China. of course. But Apple, Nike, Hitachi and NEC, just to name a few, have also faced such charges regarding China. As I point out in my blog, I don't think this is a coincidence: China as a government seems to allow, if not enable, this knif of environemnt.
Barbara, this is only for their facilities in China or any other countries. It seems that in China, in almost all factories or production facilities, workers rights are get violating. Once I had been in China and while visiting various factories I had noticed that there are no any humanitarian concerns with any of authorities. They forced them to work overtime without pay or compensatory offs.
Well the laws are only on paper. They can be easily altered or misinterpreted. The cost and harrassment of legal journey is huge and its the individual who pays for it not the system or the organization or the government. So people normally give in or try to move on to a different career or migrate to diferent countries. Also population being huge its easy to get replacement also. And Samsung being a Korean (non US) company I guess they may not take this matter so serious as Apple took because of the culture difference. In US the human rights are pretty strongly adhered to and the law being so strict and also acted upon that not many break them. Even if in any case there are exceptions they first accept it and allow proper investigations. And of course investigations gets over in due time and results come out.
Nemos: Yes it does not matter how much you get or what your position is if you do not have a good working envirionment. Working envioronment is something which we do not bother most of the time when we select a job but after joining we feel the importance of the envioronment and its too late to adjust. I simply cant understand where the laws are ?
Many ... , I was working in a similar working environment and I can tell you that the feeling is terrible .And I want to mention this , if you lose a job with such bad working conditions the only thing that you will miss is some money but if you continue to work you lose every day your dignity. I know that it sounds big words and I am not in the same position with a really poor worker in China or in Africa but from my small journey to this world until now I have learnt not to compromise myself with anything that underestimate me.
The West can try to put pressure on the Chinese government but the record in this respect hasn't been great. They haven't been very successful in forcing China where the issue of labor is concerned.
The Chinese government has to consider what is best for its citizens, believe it and actively pursue the best course of action to achieve those goals. From where we stand that doesn't seem to be the case. Are we right and they wrong? I don't know.
You don't allow third-party monitoring before doing first-party monitoring. If Samsung had not done its own internal monitoring, which the company obviously had not done, then it wouldn't want external parties reviewing the situation at its partners. It will probably invite third-party monitors after conducting the first round.
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Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
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