On June 29, the US-based National Labor Committee released a report documenting the illegal and harsh sweatshop conditions at the Jabil Circuit factory in Guangzhou, China. At the factory, more than 6000 workers — many of them illegal temporary workers — produce hi-tech products for US companies HP, IBM, Intel, Cisco and Jabil.
The report, which can be read at www.NLCnet.org, found the workers at the Jabil factory work 84 hours a week.
Assembly line workers are prohibited from sitting down and must stand for their entire 12-hour shift. Workers are allowed to use the bathroom just once in an eight-hour shift.
Six workers share each crowded dorm room, sleeping on double-level bunk beds. Seventy-five percent of the workers say the factory food is “awful”.
Workers were paid a base wage of US$0.75 an hour through April, when they received a 17-cent increase, to $0.92 an hour — well below subsistence levels.