4. Case study: Top Toy, Brio and Coop in China - Swedwatch

sleep in each dormitory. Ten bunk beds are placed in each room. The employees complain
about the crowdedness in the dormitories as well as the lines to the toilet and to water. Warm
water is available until ten or eleven in the evening.
Insurances
According to the interviews, only workers operating machines in the die-casting department
and molding department have industrial injuries insurance. It is only the managerial staffs
have old age insurance. The Chinese legislation prescribes that all employees shall cover all
employees with old age insurance and industrial injury insurance.
Health and safety
Apart from fire-drills, the employees state that they don't receive any health or safety
education.
Trade unions and co-decision
According to the plant management there is a trade union. When we asked them about the
complaints that the trade union has put forth during the recent years, there were some rather
embarrassed laughs. There have been no complaints. The plant management explained to us
that the union is something that the government decides shall exist at all work places 127 . No
complaints have been left in the mailbox, which according to the company has been installed
for the use of employees. The plant manager believes that this is either due to the fact that
workers plan to stay at the factory for a limited time only, or that they will choose to leave if
anything dissatisfies them. Another explanation given is that the workers have such a basic
education that they don't understand such issues.
– Some of them can't even write, so how then will they be able to leave complaints in the
mailbox?, the sales manager asks 128 .
Codes of conduct and inspections
Older workers at the plant state that there is a system for fake payrolls and time cards. The
fake payrolls show wages that are about 10 – 19 Euro higher than the real ones. Before the
purchasers' inspections, the factory management usually warns the employees to talk about
actual working hours and wages. According to interviews with workers, the factory
management pay workers 10 Euro to give the purchasers' investigators false answers.
Supplier A claims to be following all legislation and does not either have any major problems
in following the customers' codes of conduct. The management believes however that the
customers should pay more for the compliance with the codes of conduct and the legislation.
– We need to be better equipped due to the demands in the codes of conduct; we need to pay
for more benefits for the workers. Therefore we need to buy cheaper material and make cuts
in the margin, maintained Ginny Mok, the sales manager of supplier A.
Complaints
The workers complain about the long working days during peak season. They also complain
about the dormitories where they have to queue for a shower or for washing their clothes.
Some of the workers also believe that the stairwells are too narrow, which could have severe
consequences in case of an accident.
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