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Electronics industry "shameful" treatment of workers

Workers rights abuses in supply chains of Nokia, Microsoft, IBM and Panasonic are revealed in a new CAFOD-sponsored report

An investigation into the employment practices of electronics giants, including phone company Nokia and the suppliers making Xbox videogame stations and products for Blackberry, has uncovered a litany of labour rights violations.

The report by our partner CEREAL has revealed a series of abuses along the supply chains for some of the best-known consumer electronics in the world.

From 4,000 interviews with workers in Mexico, where these multi-million dollar companies have products manufactured and modified, the report released today highlights that:

Nokia terminated the employment of 2,000 workers – including 20 pregnant women – during the economic crisis but their recruitment agency asked workers to sign “voluntary” resignation forms, removing their rights to severance pay. Those who refused were threatened with being blacklisted.
Microsoft Xbox manufacturers Flextronics made workers share two “toilet passes” between 70 employees leaving some for up to eight hours without access to toilets. One worker urinated on herself at her workstation.
IBM used agencies to employ people on serial short-term contracts which deprives workers of permanent contract holidays and severance pay.
Blackberry products are also manufactured at Flextronics and despite Mexican law insisting on 10% of company profits going to workers annually, when 10 workers complained they hadn’t received as much as the previous year, three of the workers were eventually dismissed, and others were told their section wouldn’t receive pay rises due to “making trouble.”
Panasonic, which has many of its TVs and speakers made in Reynosa in Mexico, has been accused of verbal and physical abuse of a disabled woman. As well as verbal insults and having her crutches kicked from her, the woman complained she was refused access to a toilet when suffering diarrhoea, causing her to soil herself at her workstation.

Anne Lindsay, CAFOD's private sector policy analyst said: "This new research shows that workers are not being given the basic respect every human deserves. The indignity of the working conditions along the supply chains of companies making million upon millions of pounds on products that you and I take for granted is shameful.

“It’s now five years since the launch of the electronic industry code of conduct, and this report shows that not enough has changed. CEREAL's research with Mexican workers provides a reality check.

“Electronics companies need to stop abusing short-term contracts and let workers join genuine unions. Labour rights are fundamental human rights - not an optional extra.

“CAFOD hopes that as everyone gears up for Christmas they think hard about the people making the electronic items they are giving and receiving. The hidden stories of abuse in global supply chains must not be ignored.”

‘Labour Rights in a Time of Crisis’ is the third report by CEREAL looking at rights violations of electronics workers in Mexico.

Jorge Barajas, Coordinator of CEREAL, said: "After five years of documenting abuses in the electronic industry and asking the companies to change their labour policies, CEREAL sees few improvements in the conditions for Mexican workers in supply chains in this sector.

“There have been significant reductions in discrimination and workplace accidents, thanks in part to pressure from CEREAL, but other problems such as lack of freedom of association, excessive use of temporary contracts and humiliating treatment remain practically unchanged.

"It's important that the companies start to look to the root causes of the problems, otherwise we are just trying to fix individual cases and not really improving conditions for workers across the industry."

For interviews with Anne Lindsay, please contact Pascale Palmer ppalmer@cafod.org.uk 07785 950 585

CEREAL: Labour rights in a time of crisis (1.45 MB)

Research report by CAFOD partner CEREAL on conditions for workers in the Mexican electronics industry, November 2009

(Left to right) Richard Cockle, John Corney, Lizzie Cranfield, and Gavin Baxter celebrate together after finishing the Great North Run 2005 [CAFOD]

CAFOD is the official Catholic aid agency for England and Wales

Electronics industry "shameful" treatment of workers